Seoul City Opens 17,000 Idle Parking Spaces Through Sharing... Expands to Small-Scale Buildings Starting This Year

Idle Attached Parking Lots of Commercial Buildings, Churches, Schools, Apartments Shared with Neighbors 'Attached Parking Lot Opening Support Project'
Support Criteria Expanded from Opening 5 or More Spaces to 3 or More Spaces, Allowing Small-Scale Buildings to Participate

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Cheol-young] Over the past 15 years, Seoul City has alleviated parking issues by opening 17,188 parking spaces across 721 locations. On the 22nd, the city announced that through the ‘Attached Parking Lot Opening Support Project,’ it will open more than 2,200 additional parking spaces this year and expand the eligibility to include small-scale buildings.

The ‘Attached Parking Lot Opening Support Project’ provides facility improvement funds to building owners who open their vacant parking spaces to neighbors. The public can secure parking spaces at a low cost. While creating one parking space typically costs around 100 million KRW, utilizing idle parking spaces requires only about 620,000 KRW. Citizens who struggled to find parking can park at a low cost comparable to resident-priority parking fees (40,000 to 50,000 KRW per month), and building owners can generate income by opening previously unused parking lots.

Seoul City plans to improve some regulations this year with the goal of opening more than 2,200 attached parking spaces. The eligibility will be expanded to allow small-scale buildings to participate, and a new service will be launched to enable real-time confirmation of information on opened attached parking lots through the ‘Seoul Parking Information’ app.

The main changes to the ‘Attached Parking Lot Opening Support Project’ this year include ▲expansion of participation eligibility for attached parking lots (from 5 or more spaces to small-scale buildings with 3 or more but fewer than 5 spaces) ▲new display of hourly paid and free parking lot information on the ‘Seoul Parking Information’ app and website ▲and expansion of facility improvement and maintenance cost support.

First, reflecting the voices from the field wishing to participate, Seoul City will expand the support criteria for opening attached parking lots from the existing ‘minimum of 5 spaces’ to ‘3 or more but fewer than 5 spaces.’ This allows small-scale buildings to participate in the project, open their attached parking lots, and receive support. With a minimum contract period of 2 years, up to 2 million KRW per parking space can be supported.

Additionally, starting this year, users will be able to check information such as location, opening hours and periods, and usage fees of opened parking lots on the ‘Seoul Parking Information’ app and website. All parking lot information (hourly paid and free), except for resident-priority parking, will be available, making it easier for users to find parking lots. Especially for opened parking lots equipped with parking control systems, real-time information on vacant spaces can be checked. However, building owners opening their lots on an hourly paid or free basis must provide parking lot information when participating in the project. Facility improvement funds of 20 million KRW will be provided only if they agree to provide information, such as in apartment complexes.

Furthermore, support for facility improvement and maintenance costs when opening attached parking lots will be expanded. Security and operation management costs have been added to the allowable uses of facility improvement funds. This reflects field opinions that managing parking lots is difficult due to security vulnerabilities, allowing the use of facility improvement funds when employing security companies. Previously, funds could be used for installing entry/exit barriers, CCTV, and floor painting. Also, if the opening agreement period (2 years or more) is extended after expiration, maintenance costs will be increased to 7 million KRW.

In addition, existing support measures will continue. To encourage participation, building owners who open attached parking lots will continue to receive up to a 5% reduction in the traffic inducement charge. Also, the ‘Grateful Sharing Parking Lot’ sign will be installed on participating buildings as before.

Baek Ho, Director of Urban Transportation at Seoul City, said, “Securing space and costs to create one parking space is difficult and expensive, but opening idle parking spaces allows securing parking at low cost, overcoming parking supply limitations and alleviating parking difficulties. We ask for active participation from citizens to promote the opening of attached parking lots.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.