Singapore hikes Public Parking Fee in December

The Housing and Development Board (HDB) and Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) of Singapore announced new public car park charges last Thursday, the first adjustment since 2002 or  in 14 years. Just a week prior, the HDB and URA, which manages 607,000 car park spaces and 24,000 car park lots respectively, had announced that an islandwide review was being conducted.

The URA reasons that operations and management costs of car parks have increased substantially over the years, and current private car parks charge fees – which are much higher than in public car parks - reflect the higher overheads.

Come December, rates will go up by 20% for short-term parking inside and outside restricted zones (RZ) and designated areas (DA). The RZ/DA areas include the Central Business District, Orchard, Outram and Rochor.

	Current rate (1/2 hour)	New rate (1/2 hour)
Outside RZ/DA	$0.50	$0.60
Inside RZ/DA	$1.00	$1.20

At the same time, season parking rates for HDB car parks will increase by slightly more than 20%. According to HDB, the HDB car parks have greatly improved over the years, including having better designs, featuring landscaped decks and the integration of the Electronic Parking System and lifts in multi-storey car parks, justifying the rate increase.

	Current rate (monthly)	New rate (monthly)
For First Car Park Lot (including RZ/DA zones)
Surface Sheltered Comb. (car parks with both)	$65 $90 $75	$80 $110 $95
For Second Car Park Lot onwards
Surface Sheltered Comb. (car parks with both) Restricted Zone: Surface Sheltered Designated Areas: Surface Sheltered	$65 $90 $75 $140 $160 $125 $140	$90 $120 $105 $165 $190   $150 $170
Family Season Parking Ticket
Surface Sheltered	$33 $45	$40 $55

There is no change to parking charges for motorcycles.

Even with the price hike, Singapore is still nowhere near being the most expensive city in the world to park one's car. The average parking rate in midtown New York is US$41 a day and parking in London city for the day costs an average of £42. 

At the very least, the Singapore government has the cost of parking under strict control. Check out how much some people, from around the world, are willing to pay for a grimy private parking space to keep their cars - here's one in London, one in New York,  and one in Hong Kong. We're counting ourselves lucky!