Public carpark charges to be raised by 10-20 Singapore cents per half hour from Dec 1

FOR the first time in 14 years, Singapore's Housing & Development Board (HDB) and Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) will raise public carpark charges for the short-term and season parking schemes from Dec 1, 2016.

Short-term parking charges for public carparks outside of the restricted zone and designated area (RZ/DA) will be raised by 10 Singapore cents to 60 cents per half an hour. Charges within the RZ/DA will be raised by 20 cents to S$1.20 per half an hour.

Restricted zone traditionally covers parts of the central area such as Outram, Downtown Core, Rochor and Orchard. Designated areas refer to areas outside of but in close proximity to the restricted zone.

The authorities said on Thursday the last island-wide revision of carpark charges by the HDB and URA was done in 2002.

"Over this period, the costs of building, operating and managing carparks have increased due to general inflation, as well as construction, manpower and other related maintenance costs. Carpark charges have not kept pace with these cost increases. Therefore revisions are needed to ensure proper cost recovery," they said.

Differential charging on a per-minute basis will continue to apply for selected EPS (Electronic Parking System) carparks in locations with high demand.

Season parking rates in HDB carparks will also be raised, but the HDB will differentiate the charges. Residents who buy season parking for their first car will pay a lower rate than those who require more than one parking lot or non-residents who use HDB carparks.

For non-residents' and residents' second and subsequent parking lots, the full rate for season parking will be raised by S$25 to S$90 per month for surface carparks and by S$30 to S$120 per month for sheltered carparks.

For residents' first parking lot, the parking charge will see a smaller increase of S$15 for surface carparks, from S$65 to S$80 per month, and S$20 for sheltered carparks, from S$90 to S$110 per month.

Family season parking ticket holders currently enjoy a concessionary rate of half of the season parking rate. They will continue to do so and will pay half of the residents' first car season parking rate - S$40 per month for surface carparks and S$55 per month for sheltered carparks.

There will be no revision to the parking charges for motorcycles as they were revised when per-minute charging and concessionary season parking ticket for motorcycles were introduced in July 2014 and January 2015 respectively.

The authorities said new coupons will be available for sale at HDB branches/service centres, the URA centre and coupon agents including petrol stations and 7-Eleven outlets from early October.