5 Things to Know About Parking Spots When Buying a Condo in Toronto
The city of Toronto continues to grow and evolve but one thing remains the same: parking is always a hot topic for condo and home owners.
Here are five things that every condo buyer, seller or investor needs to know about parking spots:
1. You have to pay a separate maintenance fee (condo fee) on your condo parking spot in Toronto
Many condo buyers are surprised to find out that yes, you have to pay a separate maintenance fee (condo fee) on your parking spot.
Same applies for storage lockers – you do have to pay a separate monthly fee on your storage locker if you have one in addition to the condo fees you pay on your condo unit.
Just like the fees that you pay on your condo unit, the fees on a parking spot will vary from building to building.
On average in Toronto the condo fee on a parking spot is about $50-80/month but many of the newest buildings in Toronto have fees of $100-200/month for parking spots.
Storage locker fees average about $15-30/month, but I have seen it as high as $50/month.
HOT TIP: when buying a condo, always find out what the parking and locker maintenance fee is, often it is not a number that is disclosed up front in the marketing materials from builder in the case of pre-construction or in the listing materials when it comes to resale.
2. Parking spots in Toronto are high demand, low supply
In general, parking spots in Toronto condos are becoming a rarer and rarer commodity.
The city is pressuring developers to reduce the number of parking spots in their buildings which is creating a growing gap between the number of condos in Toronto and the number of total parking spots in condos.
The more into the core downtown you go, the more this trend is seen, and now it is nearly impossible to find a condo under 600 square feet with a parking spot included or available to purchase.
As you move away from the downtown core, parking spots become more prevalent but even in the 905 suburbs some condo buildings have no parking spots available for smallest units in the building.
3. Parking spot prices (values) in Toronto varies a lot from building to building
Just like how values of condos can vary from $900 per square foot in one building to $1200 per square foot in the building next door, so it goes with parking spots.
A parking spot in one building can be valued at $100k and next door it can be $20k.
In some older buildings (built in the 80s and 90s) parking spot values have plateaued or even decreased over time because the old buildings usually had as many or even more parking spots than there were units.
In some newer buildings you might have only 1 parking spot for every 6 or 7 units which means the values generally are $60k and up.
4. It sometimes is better to rent than buy a parking spot
Some condo buyers are shocked to learn that it would be cheaper to rent a parking spot in their building than buy one.
Sometimes the difference can actually be hundreds of dollars per month cheaper!
If a parking spot costs $75k and maintenance fees are $150/month, add to that property taxes which can be somewhere around $50-100/month, you can easily get up to $400/month ownership costs for a parking spot in downtown Toronto.
Rental prices again vary a lot from building to building but an average downtown Toronto is around $150-200/m, and a high water mark in a luxury building in Yorkville might be $300/m.
Quick math will show you it doesn’t make economic sense to buy a parking spot, however, you might still wish to buy one for the peace of mind of always knowing you have a spot to park your vehicle.
5. Should you buy a parking spot with your Toronto condo..or not?
Whether or not you buy a parking spot with your condo will be a personal decision based on many factors, but these are the most important criteria that I advise my clients to consider before making their decision:
a) Whether you have a vehicle now and if you plan on keeping that vehicle in the future
b) The cost of owning a parking spot vs. renting in your building
c) The effect on future resale value of your condo when you own a spot or not
I have had many clients purchase condos without parking spots that have cars, usually because it’s cheaper to rent parking, but sometimes because the unit they are purchasing just doesn’t have parking as an option.
Conversely, I have also had clients who don’t have cars purchase parking spots anyway with their units, usually because they are thinking about future resale value and they figure that the next buyer of their condo will likely have a car and want a parking spot with the unit.
Need help with your condo search in Toronto? We have been helping buyers just like you since 2007. Contact us today.
P.s. Check out this Globe and Mail article from back in the day where I was interviewed talking about parking spots in Toronto condos.
