Official decision on increasing standard carpark space size looms as industry warns it will raise costs

Motorists could soon find themselves with a little extra space in one of the most frustrating places — car parks. Officials are mulling an increase to the standard size of Australia’s off-road car spaces, but planners and property groups warn it could increase costs and say parking already takes up too much space. Standards Australia — responsible for such decisions — has been considering whether to increase their length from 5.4m to 5.6m as the nation’s average car size balloons. The last adjustment to car space sizes was in 2004. First announced in October 2023, a decision was initially slated to be made by April last year, then mid-this year, but has now been slated for the end of the year. “When we last reviewed the standard, about 13 per cent of our national vehicle fleet was an SUV. It’s now about 40 per cent,” Standards Australia chief executive Adam Stingemore said at the time. “As our cars have changed, we also need to consider our car parks.” While standards are usually voluntary, they are generally adopted by local governments in planning schemes and policies, which are then enforced when considering application approvals. Some areas of Australia are trying their own ways to accommodate bigger cars. The South Australian government in January proposed increasing the minimum size of home garages to combat cars being too large for on-street parking. Urban Development Institute of Australia WA chief executive Tanya Steinbeck said longer car spaces would increase costs to complete projects. “Developers are also navigating an already overly complex planning approvals system that adds layers of unnecessary red tape and cost to projects,” she said. “By requiring larger car parking bays, this is simply adding another considerable cost, due to the additional space required for carparking that will reduce available space for other amenities. “In some cases, particularly on larger projects, we may even see the need for an extra level of parking to accommodate the extra space requirements, which would come at a huge cost.” Planning Institute Australia WA state president Cameron Leckey added car parking was already taking up too much room. “Safety is always our first priority in the safety of the community in particular but we’re not convinced that bigger car bays will make our streets safer,” he said. “We think that in our city centres, parking already takes up too much valuable land and instead of making more room for cars, we should be making more room for people — and by people I mean pedestrians, cyclists and public transport as well.”