Parking lots in new residential complexes may become smaller

The Ministry of Construction is discussing the possibility of canceling for developers the existing requirements for the minimum size of parking spaces in the parking lots of new residential complexes. The authors of the initiative claim that this will not affect the provision of parking, but will create compact spaces for small cars, motorcycles, and even bicycles and electric scooters. But experts doubt the demand for such parking lots, adding that the initiative is aimed primarily at reducing costs for developers.

Kommersant obtained the minutes of a meeting in the Ministry of Construction, held in January 2024 with the participation of developers. The document says that the ministry, together with Rosreestr, is considering the need to eliminate the requirements for the minimum permissible dimensions of a parking space, which now must be at least 5.3×2.5 m (13.25 sq. m.). The Ministry of Construction and Rosreestr did not respond to Kommersant’s request.

The Moscow Investors Club (unites the capital’s developers), which initiated a discussion of this issue, proposes to reduce the minimum permissible dimensions of a parking space to 2.8 x 1.1 m (3.08 sq. m.) or completely abolish their minimum dimensions, the executive director told Kommersant. association Vladislav Preobrazhensky. He noted that this will not affect the level of provision of the population with “full-size” parking spaces for passenger cars, since their minimum permissible number is established by regional urban planning standards.

The average supply of vehicles, according to regulatory documents in the construction sector, is set at 350 cars per 1 thousand people. In 2020, the right to regulate it was given to the regions. But the regulatory documents do not indicate that the parking space should be specifically for a car, explains Petr Shkumatov, coordinator of the Blue Buckets movement.

According to the information system “Nash.Dom.RF”, now in the Russian Federation, out of 11.7 thousand new buildings, only 2.6 thousand, or 22%, are provided with parking spaces. By the end of 2022, the provision of parking spaces in Moscow new business class buildings dropped from 0.45 spaces per apartment in 2018 to 0.37, in the comfort class – from 0.24 to 0.16, Asterus calculated.

At the same time, the demand for parking is growing along with sales of housing under construction. According to Dataflat.ru, in 2023, developers in Moscow and the Moscow region sold a total of 25% more year-on-year – 21.8 thousand parking spaces, for which they earned 51 billion rubles. Their average price in the capital increased by 12%, to 3.24 million rubles, in the region – by 11%, to 1.17 million rubles.

Adjusting the minimum permissible sizes of parking spaces will open up the opportunity for developers to sell and register spaces for motorcycles and bicycles with the possibility of registering them for cadastral registration, explains Oleg Kolchenko, managing partner of the Osnova Group of Companies. When organizing parking for small vehicles, it is necessary to optimize the space so as to prevent a reduction in basic parking spaces, warns Managing Partner of Prime Life Development Denis Konovalenko.

The measure put forward by the Ministry of Construction is necessary for developers seeking to increase the profitability of their projects, but not for citizens, says Alexander Yakubovsky, a member of the State Duma Committee on Construction and Housing and Public Utilities. Parking is an expensive product for a developer, since each underground floor is at least one and a half times more expensive than a ground floor, says Mangazeya sales director Fedor Ushakov. The average price of a parking space in Moscow is now about 220–280 thousand rubles. for 1 sq. m, which is not much cheaper than the cost of apartments, which is 320 thousand rubles. for 1 sq. m, says MR Group Product Director Zhanna Makhova. But due to a more flexible layout and less wide travel routes, the costs for developers to create spaces for the same motorcycles can be half as much as for a full-fledged parking space, explains Mr. Ushakov.

But small parking spaces are unlikely to be in demand. Motorcycle owners are accustomed to parking them next to their cars or in specialized seasonal parking lots, and bicycle storage spaces are perceived by buyers of new buildings as the basic equipment of a residential complex, notes Fedor Ushakov. In his opinion, even the price is up to 1 million rubles. will not make this product in demand among buyers, so it is more advisable for the developer to use underground space for classic parking spaces or storage rooms. However, the ability to reduce parking spaces may make sense in connection with the spread of electric motorcycles, scooters and unicycles, since there are currently no well-thought-out solutions for them, notes Zhanna Makhova.

At the same time, it is hardly possible to reduce the size of parking lots for cars, because they may become unsuitable for parking cars, Ms. Makhova believes. For the most compact cars (Chevrolet Spark, Daewoo Matiz, Citroen C1, Smart Fortwo II) 7-8 sq. m, argues Metrium Managing Director Ruslan Syrtsov. However, he admits, the number of such machines is small.

Daria Andrianova