Would you consider buying apartment with no parking?

jayjay2010

There are 2 apartments that I have recently viewed and interested in, however neither of these have a parking space.

I have also checked with Dublin City Council but neither apartment complex qualifies for the residential disc parking.

Both apartments are near the city where parking is sparse.

What would you do? Would you consider them at all?

I could rent a space privately but that can get messy and can be quite costly..


Thanks

Dardania

If I needed a car,no.

If I didn't need a car, yes

jayjay2010

Dardania wrote: »

If I needed a car,no.

If I didn't need a car, yes

Well I could live without a car but that might change in the future, and I would also be concerned that having no parking space might affect the future value of the apartment when I would be selling it in a few years.

omb0wyn5ehpij9

Not a chance. I currently live in an apartment, and we only have one space but two cars. I rent a second space from somebody who doesn't use their space, but I don't know of any other spaces which are rented out. There is only 5 visitors spots for the complex, and text and park is in operation. If you park in the visitors spot more than 3 times in a week, you will be clamped regardless if you have paid for that 24 hour parking. Those 5 spots are always full and used by residence who have second cars. If people aren't lucky enough to get one of those spaces in the evening, they have to park up the road in a housing estate. The hassle of trying to find parking is something I never want to experience again, and that's a mix of trying to get a second space for our second car, and also trying to find somewhere for my friends to park when they call over. It sounds very trivial, but it is incredibly frustrating and I won't be putting myself in that situation again

Turtle_

Never. Too much hassle. Being car-less is a pain and I wouldn't do it again.

Lux23

No, I live in Dublin 8 and even little small streets are paid parking now.

Dave0JV

I would if it was in the city centre and I could walk/get public transport to anywhere I needed to go easily enough. If it was as far out as say Drumcondra, Rialto, etc. I'd be wanting a parking space though.

Stheno

No you'd never know when you'd need a car

silent_spark

I live in an apartment building with no car spaces. After a year of parking elsewhere, I realised we really have no use for a car when living in the city centre - so I sold the car - public transport is on our doorstep, and we have the option of renting for the two or three times a year we might want to drive somewhere. That said, if a car space magically became available to buy I'd seriously consider it - even if just for visitors.

spaceHopper

silent_spark wrote: »

I live in an apartment building with no car spaces. After a year of parking elsewhere, I realised we really have no use for a car when living in the city centre - so I sold the car - public transport is on our doorstep, and we have the option of renting for the two or three times a year we might want to drive somewhere. That said, if a car space magically became available to buy I'd seriously consider it - even if just for visitors.

You do know that after two years of no insurance your no claims resets to zero and you end up paying through the nose for insurance.

There is no way I would buy one without a car parking space.

silent_spark

spaceHopper wrote: »

You do know that after two years of no insurance your no claims resets to zero and you end up paying through the nose for insurance.

There is no way I would buy one without a car parking space.

Yes, I know. It's a pity to lose years of a no claims bonus, but there is absolutely no point in keeping a car parked and insured when it's not being used, it's a total waste of resources. If I want to buy a car again - and it's not likely to be for another five to ten years - I'll buy whatever is cheapest to insure and run at the time and rebuild my no claims bonus from there. I wouldn't have thought I could ever manage without a car, and would never have bought an apartment without a car space previously, but it's worked out far easier than I could have imagined.

C3PO

I would consider it!
If you don't need to drive to work then you could pay for a lot of Go Cars, Taxis and public transport and still be paying less than the cost of running a car!

misstearheus

I can't imagine not having a car now would be lost without it. But I'm relatively new to driving, am only driving 7 years. But had to get by without driving everywhere for the previous 10/11 years. It's amazing the amount that don't have cars but they just make use of whatever else they can and walk a lot of places too.

Turtle_

misstearheus wrote: »

I can't imagine not having a car now would be lost without it. But I'm relatively new to driving, am only driving 7 years. But had to get by without driving everywhere for the previous 10/11 years. It's amazing the amount that don't have cars but they just make use of whatever else they can and walk a lot of places too.

Yeah, I hear ya. I survived years without a car. But it meant that doing the shopping was a royal pain. Couldn't get he bigger better value packs cos I couldn't carry it. Clearing out anything was a pain cos it was so difficult to bring things to recycling/charity shop. Getting anywhere that wasn't well served with public transport was a pain. Yeah, you can survive but it's a proper nuisance at times!

listermint

Theres always go car.

Really if someone works and lives in the city centre they have no need for a car. Cost wise is stupid to own one. You can get go car for any spurious journeys and it would be waaay under the cost of Running your own.

Ursus Horribilis

They might not want or need one now but they could do in the future. The OP hasn't ruled out owning a car down the line.

Breezer

I rented such an apartment for 5 years, in Dublin city centre, with no option for a permit. I also needed a car for work. I happened to have a lot of free parking near me, "unofficial" parking spaces where the clampers didn't clamp you, etc. I got to know the spots. Once or twice I annoyed neighbours by parking in front of their houses, but I didn't have to all that much, and in any case, they had no automatic rights to those spots. Still, the arguments were unpleasant.

Occasionally, all these spots would be gone. I could either pay for the meter, which stacked up, or I could park miles away and cycle a Dublin bike back to the apartment, and then cycle back to get the car later that night when the spots freed up. Sometimes they didn't free up, so I'd park in a metered spot after hours and get up early to go to work. I learned what time the clampers came around and pushed the boat out as far as I could. I never got clamped.

This was a pain in the rear end at times, but was mostly fine in my early 20s with only me to worry about. Would I do it in my 30s, with a tired kid, kid toys in the car that have to be brought in with the tired kid to avoid a tantrum, family shopping, etc.? Not a chance in hell. In fact, I spent the 5 years of relative inconvenience reminding myself I'd never buy a place like this. This was despite absolutely loving my apartment otherwise.

And to be honest, I don't think there's too many places in town that have enough free/reasonable hours of paid parking to make this possible.

Now on the other hand, my housemate didn't need a car for work. He got the Luas every day. He occasionally borrowed his parents' car (his old car as it happened) on the weekends to do a big shop or take a long journey. GoCar would've worked either I'm sure.

TL/DR If it can fit into your lifestyle, now and in the future, and you don't mind a few messy time consuming workarounds, or you don't actually need a car for work and are certain you never will, go for it. It's lovely being able to walk everywhere from your door, and when you do need to drive it's great being based in town and always going against traffic. But if you think it's going to be a problem, it probably is, and buying might tie you into that for a long time.

OleRodrigo

I bought an apartment in the city centre with no parking ( 1999 ) and left a job with a company vehicle to start a new one I could cycle to. Never looked back.

Anytime I need a car I rent one from Enterprise on Russell Street, use Go Car or get a taxi. Between the three, I'm never stuck whether its a wedding down the country, a trip out to Ikea (:rolleyes: ) or just back out to the burbs with the missus.

I was worried at the time the apartment wouldn't sell on without a parking spot but I think that's changed a lot recently with professional rent companies and Air BnB agents coming into the market. In addition, a lot of people now use alternative transport in the city centre because driving is such a PITA and by many accounts a waste of money.

Last time I checked a car space was e40000 in our place. Add on the cost of a car, plus fuel , tax and Insurance...compare that to the costs of the alternatives mentioned above ( including the cost of losing a no claims bonus in the future ) and it still works out very favourable.

jayjay2010

jayjay2010 wrote: »

Well I could live without a car but that might change in the future, and I would also be concerned that having no parking space might affect the future value of the apartment when I would be selling it in a few years.

Why are you already planning on selling a property you have not even bought yet?
So many of my friends are stuck in apartments (too small for them) because of this view.

And no, I would not by without the parking, severely limits future job potential, not having even an option for a car

Hellywelly

If the development has spaces have you checked to see if one would be available to buy in the future? If it doesn't have spaces then I'd buy now problem- clearly all the others living there must manage fine without a car and I'd make the leap that in the future when you want to sell there will also be people who will manage fine without a car!
Good luck with your purchase 😊

katy39

[QUOTE=

I have also checked with Dublin City Council but neither apartment complex qualifies for the residential disc parking.

Thanks[/QUOTE]

Is this not discrimination against people living in apartments , you should be able to get disc parking on the street especially if you don't own a space in the apartment block.

Dardania

katy39 wrote: »

[QUOTE=

I have also checked with Dublin City Council but neither apartment complex qualifies for the residential disc parking.

Thanks

Is this not discrimination against people living in apartments , you should be able to get disc parking on the street especially if you don't own a space in the apartment block.[/quote]

The original planning permission may have waived this, by targeting the apartments at students or something similar.

mydarkstar

I bought an apartment without a car space. For the first 6yrs I didn't need a car and the apartment is in the centre of shops and all public transport, so it wasn't an issue. Later, I decided to buy a car and rent a space in the apartment carpark - same rented space for the last 6yrs, no issues with renting one at all. Cost of renting one is cheap by comparison of buying one outright. Other spaces regularly come up for rent too.