‘Ridiculous’ amount Sydneysiders pay for parking revealed in new report

The “ridiculous” amount one major Australian city is paying for parking has been revealed, with calls to address the increasing costs.

A new report has revealed the “ridiculous” amount Sydneysiders are paying for parking, with the figure about $20 higher than other major Australian cities.

All-day parking is costing Sydney residents about $81 per day, the NRMA’s Parkin’ Mad report found.
The figure compares with just $62 in Melbourne and $60 in Brisbane, while over in the US all-day parking is about $37 in Seattle, $40 in San Diego and $43 in San Francisco.

The report found parking costs have risen by about 9 per cent in Sydney since 2016, while disposable income has fallen by about 13 per cent across the same period, according to the NRMA.

Available car spaces have also taken a hit in the CBD, falling from a ratio of 0.21 spaces per employee in 2014 to just 0.14 spaces in 2023.

An NRMA report has revealed the ‘ridiculous’ amount Sydneysiders are paying for parking. Picture: NewsWire/ Gaye Gerard.

NRMA spokesman Peter Khoury said something needed to be done to address the increased costs grouped with plummeting disposable incomes and available car spaces per capita.

“Sydney’s daily parking fees are hitting ridiculous heights at a time when family budgets are stretched and Sydneysiders can afford it least,” Mr Khoury said.

“Parking costs continue to spike in Sydney at the same time disposable incomes are falling and we know this imbalance is increasingly unsustainable.

“At the same time the number of available parking spaces per capita in Sydney is falling — something needs to be done to rectify this problem.”

All-day parking is about $81 in Sydney. Picture: NewsWire/ Gaye Gerard

It is about $20 more than in Brisbane and Melbourne. Picture: NewsWire/ Gaye Gerard

Business Sydney executive director Paul Nicolaou said he hoped the findings would open “serious debate” and lead to “proper solutions”.

“There is no doubt that three words sum up Sydney’s parking dilemma – it is expensive, scarce and fragmented,” Mr Nicolaou said.

“The more that Sydneysiders have to spend on parking leaves less income to spend on the economy and that hits the hospitably, retail and tourism sectors very hard.”

The report also found Parramatta in Sydney’s west had lost about 2000 parking spaces in the last five years following the closure of three multistorey carparks.

A spokesperson for Roads Minister Jenny Aitchison said the government did not set or regulate the price of casual parking in the Sydney CBD.

“The government has reformed a range of parking rules to increase fairness and transparency for motorists right across Sydney, including making it fairer and easier for visitors to access parking at beachside suburbs and changing council-run two-tiered beach carparking schemes that favour homeowners over renters,” the spokesperson said.