A small garage has attracted attention after it sold for more than the price of an apartment in some parts of Australia.
The one-car enclosed garage was sold off-market for a whopping $500,000 in Woollahra, a suburb of Sydney’s affluent eastern suburbs.
City center parking can be at a premium in suburbs such as Woollahra, Surry Hills, Potts Point and Paddington, where spaces are in high demand.
A buyer is understood to be a local who needs a place to park their electric vehicle.
CoreLogic data showed that the median price of an apartment in Australia is $644,758, however, the price is lowest in Darwin, where the price is set at $364,075, and Perth and Adelaide are both. $514,369.
The enclosed garage (pictured) in Woollahra, in Sydney’s eastern suburbs, was sold for a staggering $500,000 so the buyer (a nearby resident) could house his electric vehicle.
The agency’s real estate agent Ben Collier said yahoo Parking adds significant value to a property.
‘Parking adds, I would say, a minimum of 10 to 12 per cent of the total property per space. It’s more of a percentage,” he said.
“This man would have thought that if his property is worth 5 or 6 million dollars, the parking reflects the added value of his house.”
The real estate agent said the garage was a rare find because it had its own title, meaning it could be sold separately from the property.
“Normally, the garage associated with that apartment has the same title as that apartment,” he said.
“So you can’t split them, so you have to buy the apartment.”
Collier said that when an apartment comes up for sale in a particular building in an area with little parking, “most of the time” it’s a local who buys it.
The resident keeps the parking and rents the apartment.
The Woollahra purchase was the most expensive garage sale Mr Collier knows of.
In 2023, several parking spaces were sold in Potts Point at advertised prices of more than $150,000, with one 18-square-meter parking space sold for $315,000.
Woollahra, Sydney, has a median house price of $4.7 million, with units costing an average of $1.31.
As Sydney faces a rental shortage and cost of living crisis, some people may buy units just for the parking space (photo of potential tenants queuing to inspect a property in Sydney)
Collier confirmed that people were actually buying them to house their cars and not themselves, as the spaces “aren’t big enough” to convert into homes.
Earlier this year, a Bondi property owner was offered a staggering $1 million for his small lock-up garage attached to his apartment.
Ric Serrao of Raine and Horne said the offer was rejected because it was too complicated to try to split the title.
Serrao also said the auto space would be worth more than $1 million in the future.
The apartment ended up being sold with the garage with a guide price of between $4 million and $4.4 million.
Serrao also believes garages are a good investment because people can still get a rental return on the spaces, and that garage has a rental potential of $250 to $300 per week.
According wellbeing.com.auAccording to the latest data, the average house price in Woollahra is $4.7 million.
An Australian would have to shell out cash to buy an apartment in the area just for its parking, with the average unit costing $1.31 million.