Melbourne, Sydney in the top four most expensive cities to park your car

The 2011 Colliers International Global CBD Parking Rate Survey found that Melburnians pay a median rate of $US69.53 for daily parking, just behind Oslo ($US89.04) and Copenhagen ($US73.11) at the top of the list.

Sydney slotted in below Melbourne at a daily rate of $67.42, making Australia’s two largest capital cities more expensive than bigger global hubs like London ($US65.97), Tokyo ($US62.00) and New York ($US41.00).

Brisbane ranked 14^th ($US41.09) on the list of 156 global CBDs, while Perth ranked 26^th ($US32.66).

The survey compared covered and underground parking spaces in prime central business districts. The parking rate data was collected in June 2011 and includes all relevant taxes.

‘Daily parking’ was defined as areas that “the customer is permitted to park for a full day and is not impacted by ‘early bird’ restrictions”. The survey measured hourly rates rather than daily deals, which is why the rates are higher than a single motorist would generally pay to park for a day.

The cheapest city to park was Jakarta, Indonesia, where the median daily parking rate was just $US0.92.

When monthly parking rates were compared, Perth was the most expensive Australian city, coming in at seventh overall at $US717.43.

Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane were close behind at ninth, 11^th and 14^th respectively, with monthly CBD parking rates of $US695.31, $US598.39 and $US568.89.

London topped the monthly list with a monthly median rate of $US1083.59.

Monthly rates were calculated by comparing ‘unreserved parking’ spaces, where the customer is guaranteed a space upon entry.

The survey is intended to provide corporate real estate executives with relative parking expenses, on a daily and monthly basis within countries and across borders.

What do you make of the results? Are you surprised by the rankings? Do you think the method of measuring the parking rates was too unrealistic? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.