State and local governments typically require new housing to include off-street parking – often much more than residents want, driving up the price of housing. This report finds that the rules requiring new housing developments to include off-street parking are needlessly driving up the price of homes.

Key findings

• Every year, Australia spends more than $1 billion building off-street car parking that residents don’t want or need.
• There are more car spaces than cars in apartment blocks in Sydney and Melbourne.
• Off-street parking accounts for 13% of the built floor space of apartments in those two cities.

The report identifies four reforms that would cut housing costs and get more homes built faster:

1. state and local governments should remove car-parking requirements for new housing developments
2. state and local governments should adopt tools to manage demand for on-street parking in high-demand areas
3. state and local governments should unbundle car-parking rights from new housing
4. the federal government should encourage the states and territories to remove car-parking requirements for new housing developments.

The report is provided with chart data and a technical supplement.