Revenue from car park

Problem with car parks is that I think you can only get a mortgage if you live in the buidling where the car park is. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

Unless I needed the money and carparks were readily available in the building, I would keep it. If/when the time comes to sell or rent your current home, having a carpark would make your unit attractive to a wider group of buyers/renters. Even if you ultimately sell/rent to someone who doesn't want the carpark, you still have the option of selling/renting separately.


In the meantime, it looks like a handy rate of return - better than bank deposits or good quality bonds.

(for the record here):


Grim Reading for Car Czars


Those who thought they were going to make a fortune buying Parking Spaces must be feeling a bit depressed.


In some cases, prices have plunged to just 50% of their recent highs.


From an article in The Standard:


Car park frenzy hit skids

Investors who rushed to buy car parking spaces after the government slapped curbs on home purchases late last year are now staring at losses. Owners are finding it tough to sell - or even rent out - parking slots, and slashing prices seems to be the only way out.

. . .

The sentiment for Hong Kong Garden is the most disastrous, said Billy Cheng Chi-kuen, Midland Realty sales manager for the area.


"Around 600 car parking spaces at the estate were sold by the developer but none could be resold in the secondhand market," Cheng said.


Another 400 to 500 parking spaces are lying vacant, whereas before the developer's mass offload there were less than 100 on the secondhand market.


The supply glut at Hong Kong Garden has dragged rents down to as little as HK$400 per month, compared with the HK$1,800 charged by Chinachem before. It is even lower than the HK$900 rent charged at a nearby temporary car park.


===

/see: http://www.thestandard.com.hk/news_detail.asp?we_cat=16&art_id=134137&sid=39736021&con_type=3&d_str=20130530&fc=7

I also considered buying a (second) car park in my property (I am already renting out the first). The revenue is about 4% a year, which is not that bad, but then I realised that it would be difficult to sell it, when I want to get rid of it. First, the developer is still (16 years after completion) regularly selling car park spaces (and apparently nobody wants to buy them), which means that additional car park spaces are being made available on a regular basis. Second, there seems to be a car space per flat. Since in HK there is only (on average) 1 car for 16 people, there seems to be an oversupply of car spaces in my building.


I guess for car spaces more than anywhere else it's location, location, location.


Which place do you reckon is a good location to buy (and rent out) car spaces?

Also, how to locate car spaces. I know of a website that advertises them, but there are few options, and it seems to be updated very infrequently (you still find car spaces put on sale 3 years ago...).


The only option is to talk to an agent?

"The only option is to talk to an agent?"


That's not the end of the world - but you'd better talk to more than one.


BTW, in one project I was interested, I was told I could only but a car space in a building where I owned a property. If that is true throughout HK, then your options may be very limited, and you'd better talk to 2-3 agents that know your property very well