Basement car parking

Hi Guys,

In the process of putting together initial feasibility for a small townhouse development.

Having spoken to a few consultants, the topic of basement car parking keeps rearing its head.

I'm torn between doing 3 townhouses with street level parking or attempting 4 or 5 townhouses with basement level parking.

Obviously there's a big cost implication with going underground... But what are the other considerations?

Do you need a dramatic increase in yield to make it work?

What are the other things to watch out for?

 

Have a chat to a qs - get a rate for basement parking from their website eg:BMTQS

even if it wipes out the cost of one unit to provide u/g parking, you still get the bonus unit and uplift on the selling price.

Need to have a geotech investigation/soil profile to determine where/if you will hit rock (and how much)
Consider water table level and dewatering/tanking if required

 

Thanks Scott - will do some digging

 

@opal3259 in more ways than one

 

Investigating car stackers an alternative option. Anybody on the forum implemented them with their build? I like the idea... but wonder about if the hype matches the reality?

 

Very interesting (aka suspicious) when using BMTQS that if I put a 3 level walk up with basement parking vs 3 level walk up with ground floor parking in Perth it says that the one with basement parking is $50k less.
I had a small WTF moment but it is what it is. I thought the price for the ground floor parking option was pretty spot on and I usually find their ranges quite accurate. I was just surprised with this one but I've never put in basement parking or tried to estimate it before.
Quite possibly the cost of the basement parking may be negated by the fact that almost the entire ground floor can then be used decreasing the amount you need to put on the second and third floor. In my case I was looking at 400sqm of construction and with basement parking I may be able to do 250 on ground, 100 on second and 50 on third. With ground level parking I can do 100 on ground 200 on second and 100 on third

 

Working on some concepts now with basement parking for townhouses - same numbers - this isn't you, is it?

The whole site is underground and there are five townhouses on top.

If the whole lot was done at ground level, it would be three only, due to access issues and the shape of the block.

So definitely, definitely worth it - especially in a good suburb.

 

I am considering it for Angove St and Charles St. Just due to the fact that even though I have the ROW that fitting in parking + visitor parking is a biartch.
It's quite common in Melbourne to do it this way but not so much in Perth. I really like it though. Just need to work out HOW much it actually costs.

 

That's interesting feedback.
I'm in Melbourne but it sounds like our sites are pretty similar in nature.

I basically had the same choice - 3 on top with street level parking via stackers or 5 smaller ones with basement parking.

 

Would be good to compare notes once you get some pricing back.
With your site, I gather it wasn't viable to use the ROW and put car stackers in?