How do you guys who live in condos and own multiple cars find parking?
 

I am condo hunting currently, throughout the lower mainland. It's pretty standard to see a 1 bedroom have 1 parking stall. Sometimes they will mention others are for sale, or for rent. Other times it seems like the selection is finite. Hell, some have 0 parking spots.

I notice a lot of people here have multiple cars and many must live in condos. How do you all do it? Are there readily spots available for sale/rent in your building or do you rent offsite somewhere else?

Are there cities or areas in which this is more plausible? I am going to imagine Vancouver would be more difficult to pull this off, whereas somewhere like Coquitlam may be easier.

Have 2 cars, girlfriend has one. I don't mind paying for extra spots I just want to live somewhere where they're available.
Both our work sites are nowhere near transit and would be a pain in the ass to skytrain or bus to.

I own one spot and for awhile, was renting the spot beside my own spot (got lucky) for $70/mo. Already thought that was expensive, but it was worth the premium since the spot I was renting before was $50/mo and the owner had just increased it to $60/mo. Owner jacked up the price to $90/mo and I said no, so now I just park on the street in front of the building. For comparison sake, my buddy's wife pays around $90/mo for a spot beside the Westin Bayshore, while owners in my building want up to $150/mo for their parking spot in Burnaby.

There are ALWAYS people looking for parking in the posting board in my building. We just got lucky and snapped one up when it was available.

our unit has one included and you can rent extra spots for $25/month. street parking is limited but available. (no time limit too) This is around cariboo area.

If you're interested, my brother has a condo near burquitlam area that comes with 2 parking spots. He purchased an extra one as he did not want to keep renting monthly. Theres also lots of street parking. He might be listing it soon.

I know you're looking for 3 spots but i figured it might help a little.

Parking spots are the latest victim to escalating land values.

Back in the early-2000s, it was not expensive to buy secondary spots with your unit - a spot was typically less than $10,000. Today, extra parking spots are in the tens of thousands.

Now that municipalities are relaxing parking requirements with new buildings, particularly in transit oriented neighbourhoods, it might be easier to rent a spot if you buy a unit in an older building as parking spot quotas were much more generous. I used to live in a building that was built in the mid-2000s and the number of parking spots exceeded the number of units by about 1.5 times. It wasn't hard to find someone who was willing to rent out their spare spot for $80-100/month.

Renting a spot in another building is generally difficult as building managers should not issue extra fobs and garage openers to non-residents for security reasons.

Really regret not buying a second spot when I bought my condo, now my roomates/friends when they come over always have to scramble around for parking (there are zero visitor parking in my whole complex). Street parking turned from free, no restrictions to paid parking.

at my old apartment (Around Metrotown/Nelson ave). I rented my parking out for $100/mo and that was consider low. I rented it out for a friend so meh. Street parking was very very limited basically you have to park a few blocks away. Visitor parking used to full coz other owners would park their other cars there but it was clean up after a few months.

Now I live in Coq center and parking seems a bit better at least no one seem to want to rent a parking spot. However, along the streets is all paid parking unless you park in Coq Center.

My parents apartment have extra parking spots in fact their unit got 2 parking spot and I would say their parkade is like 70 to 75% capacity?

I live in a new (2018) apartment/condo on Kingsway and the spots are tight as fuck. I ended up purchasing a spot as no one was renting them out when I moved in. I wish I had bought it earlier and had it included in my mortgage. We don't even have a washbay :okay:

I'm lucky to be able to leave my extra car at my parents' since they live in a walkable distance though

Coquitlam is fine for underground parking assuming you want to live in Coquitlam. Street parking will depend on area. Most of the concentrated developments are near the Skytrain so parking can be limited and thoroughly checked by city officials.

If you find a spot for rent, even if it's a small car only spot, take it and hope your 'neighbour' is understanding :badpokerface:



^ From when I lived in Richmond

If you're looking for 3 total spots, that could take a lot longer but you could get super lucky as well. Total roll of the dice moment I found.

keep your 2nd car at your parents who have 4 spots and another 2-3 out front :okay:

Even houses depending on your area, parking just as tough. More rentals, more people meaning more cars on side street.

If possible, leave spare car at family or friends if space permits.

lucky enough that my older 2011 building still has spots for sale.. and at 8500 lol

When I pre-saled a 2bdrm in Coquitlam back in 2012. I was only allowed to have 1 parking spot, but I wanted 2 and the developer wasn't selling additional parking spots at the time, until the units were completed(so they said). Luckily at the time my Uncle was helping me with the purchase so we were able to get the sales guy to amend the agreement, to sell me a parking spot for $15K if one was available after completion. Once I got my keys I called up the developer and asked about parking spots. They told me there were a few sports available for $25K. Showed them my pre-sale contract for a $15K spot and they had to sell it to me at that. I gotta say I was really lucky on this one without the help of my family for insight, but if I only had 1 parking sport and we have 2 vehicles and 2 bikes it would've been a shit show as I hate parking on the street and/or shuffling cars around.

Resident parking is pretty bad in our condo. Even our Strata started noticing people parking in visitors after the concierge leaves, as residents are restricted from parking in Visitors. So they just literally started towing anyone that wasn't following the rules. One night I recall seeming them tow 10+ cars out between 8pm-10pm.

Our Downtown 1 bedroom came with 0 parking spots so I've been renting one from another guy for about 3 years now. I never met him in person (absentee owner) but I've been sending him $100 e-transfers every month. I sent him one last month he but he hasn't accepted it yet. I've sent him reminders but still no response - it's only 5 days before the e-transfer expires. Wondering if I'll have to start finding a new space soon :considered:

My building was also built in 2011 and has spots for sale. Asking $15,000 for them though! Way too much after 8 years.

I used to street park my car in the neighbourhood and let the wife have the parking spot. Got sick of parking outside in the winter and I've been renting a prime spot in the parkade for $100 a month... not cheap, but worth it.

My old building by Lougheed mall had spots for $25/month and you could get up to 4 at the time we moved lol..was hella spoiled there

That's my current building right now

Which is at least 55% vacant :lol

Bought a one bed last year. Not full capacity underground parking, but still decided to shell for the extra parking spot. Well worth it not having to find street parking but if renting is an option, that's probably better long term, if you plan to change to a few years to a bigger place. Thinking back, I may have been too impulsive but we shall see when the time comes to sell if it was a bad choice or not to buy the additional spot.

Thank you for the heads' up, I will definitely let you know if I find a place in that area, may need that spot!

Lots of developments in single family home neighbourhoods are getting converted into main home plus legal suite plus a laneway. In most cases, the home owner gives up one (and sometimes both) garage spaces in favour of the laneway.

Where the fuck does the home owner think that he (and his family) and his multiple tenants are going to park their vehicles? Street parking is limited and imagine when all the single family homes turn into 3+ families per lot.

At this rate, my double detached garage is going to carry a premium over that laneway home.

LOL... I win.

when vancouver/bby/rmd/nvan becomes even higher density, most family will own just one vehicle, if any at all

That could work when you live/work within a reasonable walking distance to either a Skytrain station or a frequent bus service.

But I find that anything outside of Vancouver (not including near Skytrain stations) the bus service is not very good. I used to live in Surrey and during peak times the most frequent bus service ran one every 15 minutes. That same bus during non-peak times would be one every half an hour and then during weekends sometimes that same bus doesn't run at all. Pretty pathetic. In Vancouver, a "frequent" bus would have one come by every 5 minutes and sometimes it'd be two buses every 5 minutes.

My old apartment had the winning combination of:

1) being an older apartment, and
2) the demographics was mostly either older people or young families

#1 meant that some units actually came with 2 parking spots, and #2 meant that many of the residents did not own a car.

I seem to recall paying anywhere between $30 - $45+/month.

When I was in this scenario, I moved in with 1 spot. A year down the road snagged one when one opened up. Then started to rent a garage to start wrenching. Dumb hobby, costs too much. Lol

River District area. GF and I each have a car. Our place only came with 1 stall.

99 units, only about 105 parking spots. Some were lucky to be able to purchase an extra one.

Street parking is super limited (RD sucks for this). People were renting for $250/mo for 1 stall. It's ridiculous, but hey.. demand/supply. And another was being sold for $35k.

I just park on the street - sometimes circle the block a bunch or park very far away.