HDB says it loses $100m per year operating carparks without rate hike, Internet responds

Managing and maintaining HDB carparks costs up to $700 million annually.

Jonathan Lim | July 05, 2016, 03:16 PM

Five days after a man dug up the Housing Development Board (HDB) and Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) annual reports to question the increase in parking fees, HDB and URA has clarified with a joint statement on the costs involved in managing public carparks in Singapore.

These are the reasons given in the statement:

- Rising overheads in the construction industry;

- Improvements to new and existing HDB carparks, such as installing multi-storey carparks with lifts, and providing link bridges to connect carparks to surrounding flats;

- Additional repair works required to maintain an increasing number of ageing carparks.

HDB will lose an average of $100 million annually if they do not raise carpark prices which has stayed the same since 2002. The statement said that operating costs have risen 40% since 2002.

How are Singaporeans taking this news?

Here are some of the top-liked comments from The Straits Times report on the announcement:

hdb carpark hike 2

hdb carpark hike

hdb carpark hike 4

hdb carpark hike 3

On the issue of Electronic Parking Systems (EPS), ST's report cited its source as saying that it costs up to $150,000 to install the EPS at one carpark.

Currently 1,200 out of 2,000 HDB carparks have the EPS.

Top image from LHOON

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