The insane cost to park in Cape Town

Parking in Cape Town is a scarce commodity, but a new development in one of the city’s high-demand areas is offering buyers a chance to get their very own space – at a premium.

According to the latest investor presentation from Tower Property Group, parking bays which form part of its new development on Napier Street in De Waterkant in Cape Town will be sold for around R570,000 a bay.

The group is building a three-level underground parking garage, which runs along the length of the street, as part of the development, which will offer 141 parking bays for those who are willing to fork over the money to have somewhere to park.

Parking space is notoriously scarce in Cape Town, with a R570,000 price tag looking relatively cheap compared to bays that have sold for over R1 million in the past. This includes a R1 million bay in Clifton and a R1.1 million bay in Bakoven.

This follows a historic trend of pricey parking spaces going as far back as 2009, when Pam Golding Properties sold single basement parking bays in two developments for R580,000 and R750,000, while another sold for a staggering R2 million in 2008.

The Napier Street development forms part of the Tower group’s upscaling of the Cape Quarter Precinct. Tower acquired the commercial properties known as Cape Quarter Piazza, Cape Quarter Square and 32 Napier Street in 2013, which together make up the Cape Quarter Precinct – with the area including 5,403 sqm of developable bulk at Cape Quarter Piazza alone.

In the group’s 2017 annual report it listed the approximate value of the entire Cape Quarter Square at over R680 million.

The apartments in the developments will be upmarket residential spaces, with budgeted selling prices in the region of R79,000 per square metre – though Tower expects this to go as high as R90,000 per square metre in the Napier Street development which offers 16 upmarket apartments on top of two retail floors.

Residents are allocated their own parking spaces that are not part of the 140 bays that will eventually be sold off.

Read: What a R2 million home looks like in Joburg, Cape Town and Mauritius