"Not Even One Parking Spot Per Household"... What to Do About Parking Shortages in Rental Apartments

Average Parking Spaces per Household Only 0.79
Ultimately a Cost Issue... Increasing Parking Spaces Reduces Margins

The number of parking spaces available per household in rental apartments was found to be less than one. Compared to general sale apartments, which barely allow one car per household, rental apartments have nearly 30% fewer parking spaces.

On the 15th, Real Estate R114 released an analysis of complexes obligated to disclose management fees from the K-apt Apartment Management Information System. According to the analysis, the average number of parking spaces per household in rental apartments nationwide is 0.79. In other words, it is difficult to park even one car per household.

A car double-parked in a parking lot. Not directly related to the article. [Image source=Yonhap News]

For general sale apartments nationwide, the average parking space per household is 1.10. Considering that households owning two or more cars are few, this means that while parking space is not abundant, at least one car can be parked per household.

By building age, rental apartment complexes over 30 years old have only 0.28 parking spaces per household. Apartments aged 21 to 30 years have 0.41 spaces, and those 11 to 20 years old have 0.89 spaces.

For apartments 6 to 10 years old, the average is 0.96 spaces, and for those 5 years old or less, 0.95 spaces. The newer the apartment, the more parking spaces are secured. Nevertheless, the average does not exceed one space per household.

On the other hand, general sale apartments have 0.68 spaces for complexes over 30 years old, 0.99 for 21 to 30 years, 1.30 for 11 to 20 years, 1.23 for 6 to 10 years, and 1.28 for 5 years or less. However, since the 2000s, after surpassing an average of one space, the number has not increased further.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

The biggest cause of this parking space shortage is cost. Rental apartments must be offered at lower prices in the market, so spending more on increasing parking spaces reduces profit margins. Therefore, suppliers try not to exceed the legally required number of parking spaces.

From this month, the government has allowed the cost of securing more parking spaces than the legal requirement to be reflected in the sale price. However, this leads to the problem of increased supply prices.

Looking at the number of parking spaces per apartment household by region, Sejong City had the highest at 1.29, likely due to a high proportion of newly built complexes. Gyeonggi had 1.16, Daegu 1.12, and Incheon 1.07, following behind. Only four regions exceeded the national average of 1.06. Seoul was below average at 0.98.

By housing type, parking spaces were 1.43 for mixed-use residential buildings, 1.11 for row houses, 1.07 for urban lifestyle housing (row houses), 1.05 for apartments, and 0.90 for urban lifestyle housing (apartments).

Meanwhile, in March, the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission announced the ‘Measures to Resolve Parking Conflicts within Private Property of Apartment Complexes, etc.,’ which stipulates that business approval will not be granted unless at least one legal parking space per household is secured when constructing apartments or residential officetels. Additionally, a garage certification system requiring households owning two or more vehicles to secure a garage near their residence is being discussed for mid- to long-term implementation.

This is a system improvement recommendation made by the Commission to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, Ministry of Justice, National Police Agency, and 243 local governments nationwide, in response to a surge in complaints related to illegal parking on private property among illegal parking issues.

According to the Commission, complaints related to illegal parking submitted through the National Sinmungo portal exceeded one million for the first time in 2016 and reached 3.14 million in 2020 alone. In particular, complaints about illegal parking on private property have surged to about 76,000 over the past four years.

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