Potts Point car space sells for $190,000 at auction

It may not look like much, but a 15-square-metre slab of cement was one of Sydney’s hottest pieces of real estate at an auction event on Monday night.  

Three bidders fought for the secure car space at 6 Challis Avenue, Potts Point, before it eventually sold for $190,000 – a bullish $12,666 a square metre.  

For comparison, the most recent apartment sale in that building was a two-bedder that sold in November 2016, at $1.46 million – $1793 a square metre.

Agent Anthony Birdsall, from Laing Real Estate, said there was a “reasonable amount of interest” in the lead-up to the auction, mostly from local buyers simply looking for somewhere secure to put their car. 

“People still drive, don’t they? And I think all the restaurants and cafes just make it harder, and shopping. It makes it harder for locals, they’re parked out,” Mr Birdsall said.

He added that parking spaces in the area were hard to find. “They’re pretty scarce – most are attached to apartments. To get one on its own title was quite rare.”

Records show the car space last sold for $95,000 in 2010.   

Peter Chittenden, managing director of Colliers Residential, says there are very few individual car spaces for sale. “You need council approval to sell them separately – it’s very uncommon these days to get a spot with separate lot number.”

“From the city CBD point of view, every piece of planning is encouraging less cars, but people still want a car space.”

Chittenden estimates a car space could add $75,000 to $250,000 to the price of an apartment in a development, depending on “the apartment it’s attached to and the scarcity of spots”.

He also noted there could be issues renting residential car spaces out. “It depends on the owners’ corporation – in most instances it’s not allowed,” he said.

Angelo Bouras, from Richardson and Wrench Elizabeth Bay, sold a space at Springfield Avenue, Potts Point, for $166,000 in December.

He recalls that of the six registered bidders at the auction, five were local owner-occupiers.

“These people live in buildings where they don’t have parking … they’re tired of parking up the street and walking their shopping up the stairs,” he said.

“It’s nothing to do with yield or investment or capital growth – it’s purely convenience.” 

While rental yield might not be a motivation for city buyers, taking advantage of an existing unused space can be lucrative for owners with spaces to spare further afield.

Data from comparison website Finder.com.au, sourced from listings on rental sites parkhound.com.au and findacarpark.com.au, shows that in NSW, the average monthly car park rent is $259, or $3109 a year.

The most expensive location in Sydney is Matraville – the second most expensive in the country – with the average rent for a car space at $558 per month, followed by Pagewood at $556, and Belmore at $554.

The Rocks comes in at $552 per month, and Sydney CBD’s at $395 – which makes it the ninth most expensive area to rent a car space in Australia.