Tomasz Kaleta, Sales Department Director, Develia S.A.:
In our opinion, the order to build 1.5 parking spaces for each flat will be detrimental to the market and customers. At present, it is rare to find housing estates where the ratio is lower than 1 parking space per 1 unit. In a typical development, 1-2 room units make up half of the offer and their buyers often forgo the purchase of a parking space. This is especially true of projects located in agglomeration centres.
Therefore, raising this indicator is pointless and will unnecessarily cause a further increase in flat prices. It is worth remembering that the cost of building 1 parking space is approximately PLN 100,000, where their sale price oscillates around PLN 35,000 on average. This difference must be calculated by developers into the price of all units.
Andrzej Gutowski, Vice-President and Sales Director of Ronson Development:
The introduction of a requirement to build 1.5 parking spaces per flat will certainly affect the costs of developers’ investments. In some cases, it will force the construction of not one, but, for example, two storeys of underground garages, which may generate additional costs of 5 to 10 per cent on the scale of the investment.
In addition, plot space constraints may make it difficult to provide additional space for parking spaces. As a result, developers, in accordance with the law, may be forced to reduce the number of flats built in a project.
Damian Tomasik, CEO of Alter Investment:
Looking at current trends and society’s move away from cars, the requirement to build more spaces is a misguided idea. Garage spaces are often sold below the cost of construction, and therefore the price of a flat must be correspondingly higher for the project to ultimately be profitable.
The cost of building parking spaces, and especially garage halls, always affects the price per square metre of a flat, so this has a direct impact on the increase in the cost of building a flat. Consequently, this change, in my opinion, will be negative.
Angelika Kliś, Member of the Board of Atal:
Our company also carries out investments in Germany. So we have a comparison with the regulations in that much more developed market. We are of the opinion that instead of introducing parking standards of this kind, as well as others affecting the cost of production, it would be much better to borrow solutions from our neighbours that have been in place for years and have proven themselves.
This is, by the way, also common practice in other European countries. There, the developer and local authority representatives sit down at a table and discuss the possibility of developing a plot of land for residential purposes. They draw up an urban planning agreement, define priorities, and present their expectations of the developer, e.g. that some element of the development will serve the community. In this way, both parties are satisfied. This is thinking directed at meeting real needs, rather than treating en bloc all developments under a given provision.
We know from experience that the number of parking spaces realistically needed varies from one development to another. It will be different in the inner city, and different in a suburban location. The most costly is the construction of underground garage halls, which has an impact on the price per metre of a flat.
Mariola Żak, Sales and Marketing Director at Aurec Home:
The tenants of modern housing estates are fed up with concreted spaces and noise; they dream of greenery, silence and relaxation in nature. On the other hand, however, the daily search for a parking space gives them a headache. Developers have to reconcile both aspects in order to match the offer to the expectations of today’s buyers. A compromise on this issue in 2023 was attempted by those in power.
Unfortunately, the idea of a top-down mandate to provide a minimum of 1.5 parking spaces for each flat in a development may backfire on housing prices. It is worth knowing that the prices of parking spaces in underground garages are usually up to half the cost of their construction. The cost of building a parking space is approximately PLN 70 000, while the spaces are sold for PLN 30-40 000. The difference, i.e. the remaining costs together with the added market value of the parking space, are therefore distributed among all buyers, regardless of whether they use the underground garage or not, so the price for each unit automatically rises.
Małgorzata Ostrowska, Director of the Marketing and Sales Division at J.W. Construction:
Many factors influence the cost of building parking spaces. The construction of an external above-ground car park is not as costly as garage halls, but by building a car park on the land, we lose the so-called PUM, i.e. the number of flats on a given plot, and this already translates into the cost of the investment, as the price of land per m2 of flat increases. Thus, this ultimately affects the price of a flat.
The construction of underground car parks is very expensive, the garage hall may be located on a floor minus one, but it may also have several underground floors. The aforementioned construction cost therefore also depends on the number of storeys, but also on the quality of the ground on which the construction is carried out. It is also possible to build halls with parkliframes, and these structures also cost up to several thousand euros per unit.
To sum up, the mentioned requirement from the special law will definitely increase the cost of the project and ultimately the price of the flat itself. Although it is worth mentioning that already today some projects provide for 1.5 or even 2 spaces per unit.
Cezary Grabowski, Sales and Marketing Director of Bouygues Immoblier Polska:
It is important to realise that there are already investments under construction that provide for 1.5 or even 2 parking spaces per flat. So this is not an unprecedented situation, but it is important to understand that such a solution costs money and these costs are borne primarily by the developer. After all, the most time-consuming and costly stage of construction is the work in the ground.
If the new regulations for increasing the parking ratio come into force, we will have to build more parking spaces in the garage halls, and this could mean that instead of two levels of such an underground garage, three will have to be built. The consequence of this could be an increase in the price of flats, as the cost of building the entire development will rise.
Zuzanna Należyta, commercial director at Eco Classic:
We do not foresee an impact of the change in these regulations on the increase in housing prices. We observe a shortage of parking spaces, not an excess, so we do not see this change as a problem.
Jakub Serek, Development Cost Planning Director at Archicom:
Given the limited supply of plots for multifamily developments in large cities, the increased number of parking spaces per flat will result in the need to build larger underground garages. This will directly translate into an increase in average development costs by several per cent. In the case of unfavourable ground and water conditions and the impossibility of constructing more underground storeys, this may result in a reduction in the number of flats within the project. Consequently, an increase in land prices per PUM should be expected, which will translate into a higher cost of a unit for the end customer.
Marek Starzyński, sales director at Okam:
The financial outlay for the construction of the garage hall constitutes a significant part of the total costs of the investment implementation. Thus, the adoption of provisions increasing the parking ratio will naturally increase the cost of residential projects due to the necessity of enlarging the car park or building its subsequent storeys.
Joanna Chojecka, sales and marketing director for Warsaw and Wrocław at Robyg Group:
It is difficult to comment on this project, but I do not think it will affect the current functioning of the residential market. We have been meeting the most demanding residential construction guidelines for years and the new regulations will not affect our business.
Janusz Miller, Sales and Marketing Director at Home Invest:
In accordance with the amended housing spec and its requirement for the number of parking spaces, the price of flats may increase. However, it is difficult to say exactly by how many per cent at the moment. It depends on a number of factors, such as the location, the cost of building car parks, competition in the market or the developer’s pricing policy. However, it can be expected that the new regulations will certainly have an impact on price increases in new projects.
Source: dompress.pl
Photo: Flow, Archicom
