Parking and Yield

Parking takes space and money that could serve other uses. In a building with structured parking, stalls, aisles, ramps and structure add cost while contributing indirectly to the project’s value by meeting a market or regulatory need.

Parking adds cost before it adds income

Illustrative 200-home project, $40M cost excluding parking, $2.4M annual housing NOI. Structured stall cost is editable. Parking is assumed to generate no revenue and consumes 330 SF of gross constructed area per stall. Ratio rounds up to whole required stalls; parking area is additional to the housing area.

The trade-off depends on the site. Surface parking consumes land; structured or underground parking uses building area and can carry higher construction costs. A required parking ratio can therefore affect the amount and arrangement of housing or other program that fits.

Parking is best treated as a design and feasibility question together. Compare the number of stalls the project must provide, what the site can accommodate and what demand supports. Costs and revenue vary by location and delivery method, so an illustrative per-stall figure should not be mistaken for a project estimate. A stall count is only one input; circulation, accessible spaces and site conditions change the area the parking system actually needs.