Underground parking

Underground parking garages are not cheap to build, not cheap to buy and most of all, not cheap to maintain.

Buying new
If you are buying a condo in many new developments, you have to decide if you will pay a lot extra for a parking spot.

You can read my views on parking in the No Parking and Bicycles? pages on this website.

Besides getting over the shock of how much a parking spot costs in Toronto, there are a lot more parking costs you need to be aware of.

1.	Monthly common expenses need to be paid for each parking spot.
2.	Before you pay extra for a a convenient extra-wide handicap spot that is close to the elevator, read the declaration very closely. If you do not have a handicap parking permit, you may have to give up your spot to someone else who does have one and you get to use their spot. Neat eh?
3.	If your car leaks oil or anti-freeze onto your parking space, you will have to pay to clean it up.
4.	If you decide to rent or sell your parking spot, most declarations state that you can only do so if the other person resides in the condo corporation.
5.	All owners will have to pay to maintain and repair the underground parking garage whether you own a parking spot or not.

Another concern. Make sure that the parking spot you buy is large enough for you to be able to easily park your car. Some spots are awfully narrow

Buying a re-sale
Buying a resale condo, especially in an older condo corporation, usually means that you get a parking spot.

However, before you sign an offer, you need to look at the parking spot. If the surface is damaged, of if your spot is far away from the elevator, you may want to look elsewhere.

Inspect the all the levels in the parking garage to see if there are signs of water leaks, poor security, inadequate lighting or concrete deterioration. Exposed rusty steel rebar is a bad sign and can mean that the garage needs very expensive repairs. (See the next page.)

Read the complete Reserve Fund Study to see what the engineers say about what repairs and replacements are needed, when they need to be done and how much they estimate it will cost.

If you are looking to buy a townhouse, a condo corporation with surface parking will be far less costly in the long run than one with underground parking because underground garages are so expensive to maintain.

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