Building and Maintenance Costs of Multi-storey Car Parks

Mr Gan Thiam Poh asked the Minister for National Development (a) what is the average cost of building a multi-storey car park and surface car park respectively; (b) what is the monthly maintenance charge for a car park; and (c) what is the average subsidy for each car park if the monthly parking charge is insufficient to cover the replacement and maintenance cost.

Construction costs vary for different car parks built over the years as they depend on factors, such as the prevailing cost of construction materials and site-specific constraints. In general, it costs about three to five times more to build a multi-storey car park compared to a surface car park, on a per lot basis.

On average, general maintenance, improvement and repair costs take up about 20% of yearly car park expenditure. However, parking charges do not cover only maintenance costs. The bulk of expenditure for Housing and Development Board (HDB) car parks comes from building works as well as other operating costs, such as car park management and enforcement. The total costs of building, operating and maintaining car parks have increased over the years because of rising overheads in the construction industry, more capital expenditures for new and existing car parks, and additional repair works required to maintain an increasing number of ageing car parks.

Last year, we estimated that without any increase in car park charges, HDB would incur a deficit of around $100 million annually in the coming years. Even with the revised parking charges, we expect HDB to continue to run a deficit in the coming years.