Should you get parking?

So, should you get a parking slot?

If you can afford it, by all means, get a parking slot!

Everyone's solution to Metro Manila's poor transportation infrastructure situation is to get a car. The government's color-coding scheme has compelled those who could afford to get another vehicle.

There are so many cars that village roads are now used as parking lots. Developers now need to construct 11 floors for parking (5 basements, 6 podiums) for new projects.

Simply put, the demand for parking slots is increasing significantly fast. The next question is, will the future buyer of your unit need a parking slot?

The table above depicts various salaries required by banks for a home loan with a rate of 8%. Given the various wages, do you think the future buyer of the property would own a car? I guess that anyone with a salary of more than Php76K/month (the salary of a middle manager) would. That is to say, if your property is worth more than Php4 Mn, the likely buyer would own a car and require a parking slot.

What about renting a slot?

I'm not sure if you still could 5-10 years down the road. In 2023 alone, manufacturers sold 429,807 cars–a record high. This number continues to grow at double-digit rates each year. Assuming each car occupies 12.5 sqm (the typical size of a parking slot), these vehicles will require 5.37 Mn square meters of space either on the road or parking slots. That is to say, we're building more cars faster than we can build roads. In fact, rental rates in some areas already go as high as Php10,000/month due to scarcity.

In the event that the future buyer can't acquire a parking slot in the secondary market (because the parking's title is appurtenant to the unit's title) and can't rent one, how much discount do you have to give to sell the unit? Just as a basis, buyers typically demand a discount of at least 20% for properties with undesirable traits like tumbok/perimeter lots.

So, to repeat myself, get a parking slot if you can afford it.