Bad news: HDB / URA is going to increase parking fees soon


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Last Updated on 2016-06-26 , 7:26 pm

Ask any driver about the most affordable parking lots in Singapore, and chances are, they’re going to say, “HDB or URA lots lor.”

The $0.50-per-half-an-hour rate has become so ingrained in many drivers’ mind that even when we can’t remember any other pricing—at least not for me (since I was still not legal to drive on 2002!).

But now, this is set to change.

URA and HDB, the authorities in charge of all public car parks in Singapore, are going to conduct a review of the public car park pricing. This will also include the pricing for season parking.

Currently, white lots are at $0.50 per half an hour, yellow lots are at $1.00 per hour and season parking are at either $65 for open air car parks or $90 for sheltered multi-storey car park.

This review will affect over 631,000 lots, with about 96% of them covered by HDB and 4% by URA. The last review was done in 2002—fourteen years ago.

In addition to the price changes, HDB is also looking at having a different pricing for non-residents and residents who own more than one car. Currently, the season parking price for multiple cars in an HDB household is similar, but priorities to renew the season parking ticket are given to just the first car in a household. According to HDB, this could “help to better manage parking demand, with priority accorded to the parking needs of residents’ first car.”

HDB has also mentioned that while the car park prices have not changed for fourteen years, the car parks have improved a lot: from the gantry-based system to lifts in multi-storey car parks.

As a driver, I can vouch that the improvement is really helping: it’s really a pain in the butt to use coupons, especially when you’ve no idea how long you need to park there.

For URA, they also indicated how the cost of managing their public car parks ha increased, and set to make the fees closer to private car parks.

For example, in Hougang Mall, there is an HDB or URA car park just beside it. During office hours, it cost $5 to park for five hours in the public car park, while it will cost $8.60 to park inside Hougang Mall. This is precisely the reason why the public car park there is often full (unless it’s raining).

The amount to increase has not been set and would be revealed later, but the exact date has not been confirmed.

This is also part of the plan to initiate a car-lite Singapore. In an April Parliament Sitting, National Development Minister Lawrence Wong has said that the Government might be raising the car park fees in order to promote a car-lite environment.

Top Image: PK.pawaris / Shutterstock.com

This article was first published on goodyfeed.com


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