"There is no parking problem in Tel Aviv, because there is no parking.
Now get along, "said Tel Aviv-Yafo Mayor Ron Huldai at a city council meeting about two years ago. Since then, this is the direction, and not just in Tel Aviv.
There is still no final date for operating the first red line of the light rail (from Bat Yam through Tel Aviv, Ramat Gan and Bnei Brak to Petah Tikva) - there is only postponement after postponement, which makes parking the hottest product in the real estate world.
A third of the people behind the wheel on the road in a big city are parking seekers.
In Tel Aviv, it takes an average of 17 minutes to find a parking space.
The congestion charge at the entrance to Gush Dan is another idea that rises and falls from government to government, and is especially likable for the budget department in the Ministry of Finance, which recently linked it to the Arrangements Law.
The explanatory memorandum to the Tel Aviv Entry Law in a congestion charge states that "similar programs are being implemented around the world and have led to a 15 to 20% reduction in the volume of travel."
London, Singapore and Stockholm, for example.
The maximum rate per day in Gush Dan will be NIS 37.5.
Agrippa Project in Jerusalem by Cardan Real Estate,
The new projects being built in the area are planned according to the new parking standards, formulated around the operation of the red line.
Some of the apartments are marketed without parking, and at an expensive price of up to NIS 60,000 per square meter.
The Tel Aviv Municipality is also reducing the accessibility of parking in the city.
Want to come?
There are buses and bike paths.
The Tel Aviv municipality claims that this way of approving projects without parking "will make it possible to increase the economic viability of urban renewal and reduce the cost of housing, due to the high costs of establishing parking, which is embodied in the price of the apartment."
We are still a long way from the price of parking in Manhattan, which recently broke a $ 1 million record.
But that, too, is nothing compared to Hong Kong's hot real estate market: Wharf Holdings and Nan Fang Group sold a parking space for $ 1.3 million in the prestigious Mount Nicholson housing project.
In Tel Aviv, the price is still "low" - only about half a million shekels.
The bubble has not really swelled yet, although the potential exists - Jerusalem has almost a million residents and only about 130,000 parking spaces, and in Tel Aviv they are looking for parking in 80,000 existing spaces, and only then the apartment.
The device is dropping
With new parking standards and many projects sold without parking, parking prices will only go up.
Today, an old 3-room apartment, 60 sq.m., without parking, second-hand, in the heart of Tel Aviv, is sold for NIS 3.5 million, sometimes it is even considered a bargain price.
Tel Aviv is the first to reduce the parking standard throughout the city from at least one parking space per apartment, when it set it at a ratio of 0.8 at the beginning of the year.
The municipality's policy document states: "Reducing the parking standard is a component within a set of actions for formulating a comprehensive and sustainable transportation policy in the city.
Reducing the parking standard has an effect on reducing the volume of travel in a private vehicle and as a result has an impact on environmental and public space aspects.
In addition, lowering the parking standard will increase the economic viability of urban renewal and is expected to lower the cost of housing in the city due to the high costs of building parking, embodied in the price of the apartment, and the high costs of operating and maintaining parking.
EXCHANGE RAMAT GAN project of areas and insurance tower,
The local committee in Tel Aviv will ultimately determine the parking standard in new residential plans, based on considerations of the level of public transportation service in the proposed plan environment, alongside the characteristics of the housing units, such as apartment space, ownership or rent.
The committee will also be entitled to demand non-attachment of parking spaces to the housing units, so that there will be no obligation to purchase parking when buying an apartment.
The price of parking
It was expected that the reduction in the standard would lead to a decrease in the demand for the construction of parking lots and parking facilities, but according to Udi Dresner, CEO of Promot Parking Facilities, the exact opposite happened: " Of any product in short supply due to cost.
In the past, it was clear to every buyer of a new apartment that he also received a parking space together with the apartment, so that the parking space did not have a special weight in the price of the apartment. "
Today, when not all apartments have parking, an apartment with parking has suddenly become an upgraded product, on which developers can charge an additional fee - and that is exactly what they do.
In the demand areas in the city center, the price differences between an apartment with parking and an apartment without it may reach NIS half a million, and even NIS 1 million when it comes to a luxury project.
We still do not know whether the Tel Aviv Municipality will actually succeed in reducing the number of cars on the roads as a result of the step it has taken, but we can say with certainty that the prices of parking spaces, and of apartment prices in general, have risen.
Anyone who intends to live in the city centers understands that the light rail is a game changer, and it may be possible to get by without a private car for many activities we previously needed, such as commuting to work.
Of course, the consequences are an increase in the price of the parking component in the immediate time frame - the next two years, since only then will the light rail start operating, and the metro is not yet expected.
Tel Aviv is currently doing quite a few actions to reduce private car activity - adding public transportation lanes instead of private lanes (via Namir, Jabotinsky), adding bicycle paths and recently starting a pilot as part of which it restricts private vehicle entry to neighborhoods such as Kerem Hatyemanim or Basel Ashtori Haprachi.
The new hit is Micro Living - a small apartment, common areas for the community and no parking.
No, it is not cheap, but the demand is great, as in the other big western cities.
The apartments are sold with a shared garden with seating areas, a shared study, a shared laundry room and more.
According to real estate appraiser and lawyer Nehama Bogin, there are significant differences in the value of parking between the periphery (outside the Gedera-Hadera borders) and the circles closest to Tel Aviv, and of course to Tel Aviv itself.
The main reason for the relatively low cost of parking in peripheral cities is due to low density and higher supply.
In the Gush Dan area, the picture is reversed, given the parking shortage in these cities.
Most families in the cities around Tel Aviv have 2 cars, thus creating an inflation of parking that increases the value of parking out of the value of the apartment.
In Tel Aviv, parking can reach 10% or more of the value of the apartment.
Want to buy an apartment in a new building without parking in the heart of Tel Aviv?
Pay less.
Eyal Tischel, CEO of Damari Galim, an urban renewal company in Tel Aviv: "In the projects we are promoting, it is possible to purchase an apartment without parking, which can reduce the price of the apartment by NIS 300,000 to NIS 500,000."
In a letter sent by the chairman of the Tel Aviv Contractors Association, Yehuda wrote to Mayor Ron Huldai, he stated: One: Until the light rail lines and the metro are operated, we will continue to build parking spaces according to the existing standard, when we will be able to convert them to major areas in the future. "
Waiting for the light rail
So it is true that there is no light rail yet, but developers have already started selling apartments without parking in projects near the light rail arteries, and buyers understand that it is legitimate and also cheaper.
The urban future of Gush Dan depends very much on the development of accessibility.
Planning authorities are striving today to provide easier options for residents to easily get without a car from Petah Tikva, Herzliya or Rishon Lezion by fast and dynamic public transportation to the activity centers in Gush Dan, workplaces and leisure in central Tel Aviv and back home.
Local authorities are trying to implement in the area a better understanding of the citizens who do not have to enter anywhere in the city center with a private car.
Entire streets in Tel Aviv were closed to traffic in the city center.
Every year the number of private vehicles on the road increases, traffic congestion increases, roads are blocked and air pollution increases.
The light rail whose red line will start operating in Gush Dan in about a year and a half is only part of the general solution.
To this are added future metro plans, adding public transportation routes to buses at the expense of private car routes, bicycle paths and enclosed spaces for cars in central Tel Aviv as part of various pilots.
The reduction in parking standards, which began in office buildings, is now also being implemented in new residential buildings on light rail arteries.
Economic considerations
"Apartment buyers and investors, who see the intensive work on the light rail, are making economic considerations as well as quality of life considerations, and some tend to buy apartments without parking and significantly reduce the price of the apartment," notes Tzachi Sofrin, owner of the Sofrin Group.
The group is engaged in the initiation, management and construction of real estate projects for residential, office, commercial and logistics, and is establishing, among other things, projects near the light rail axis.
Gil Gurevitch, VP of marketing for Azorim, which markets the EXCHANGE RAMAT GAN project, which also sells apartments without parking: " The center.
The light rail will start operating in Gush Dan only in about a year and a half to two years, while private parking is already limited today.
This causes a significant increase in the value of parking. "
According to Gurevitch, if in the past buyers did not show interest in new apartments without parking, the light rail changes the picture.
"Cities like Tel Aviv and Ramat Gan will operate similarly to London, Paris and New York, where most of the passenger traffic operates via the city train," Gurevitch explains.
"The reality is already beginning to take root among the buyers of apartments, who are willing to consider buying an apartment without parking. With us, for example, they can save about NIS 200,000 in the price of the apartment."
Reducing the standard and increasing the cost of parking spaces also has a positive aspect, related to the ability of developers to promote NAP 38 projects. When it is not possible to add to the apartment space, parking space is the only possible alternative.
In the other cities of Gush Dan, too, parking becomes redundant in the master plans.
The Tel Aviv District Committee is currently promoting an outline plan for the renewal of the employment area in western Herzliya, which is expected to include about 90,000 employed persons and about 5,000 living in 2,300 small housing units with an average area of 50 square meters, up to 2 rooms.
The entire program is based on the development of a public transportation system, pedestrians, bicycles and other light vehicles, and encourages their use over private vehicles.
The idea is to reduce dependence on a private vehicle so that the volume of traffic in a private vehicle does not exceed 40% of the total movements.
And meanwhile in Jerusalem
If you were wrong to think that the parking problem is unique to Tel Aviv, know that in Jerusalem the situation is similar.
There, too, many projects go out without parking.
The advantage is that the light rail is in a more advanced condition than in Gush Dan.
For example, in the heart of Jerusalem on Agrippa Street, Kardan Real Estate is building the Agrippa project - without parking. Mahane Yehuda, no cars driving on the street, no buses, no sirens and noises of vehicles and no soot.
The project is mainly suitable for investors and seniors, who want to live in the pulsating center of the city, close to restaurants, the market for places of entertainment and public services.
There are 26 typical 3, 4 and 5 room apartments.
Prices in the sky: Recently, a 3-room apartment with an area of 91 square meters on the 6th floor was sold for NIS 3.12 million.
Sivan Hilli, VP of Marketing and Sales at Kardan Real Estate: "The residential experience in the Jerusalem project is like a vacation. In a boutique project designed for people who really want to live in the city. "
And what about the future?
Cooperative transportation services and especially in autonomous vehicles will gain momentum, and then people will no longer look for parking.
You can simply order the car to park alone in the parking lots outside the city, and time it in the morning to your area of residence.
Science Fiction?
According to Prof. Amnon Shashua, senior vice president of Intel Global and President and CEO of Mobilai, we will be able to travel in Tel Aviv next year in autonomous taxis. Recently, Mobilai received approval from New York State to make autonomous trips on the city's busy streets.
"Driving in complex urban areas like New York is a significant step in testing the capabilities of an autonomous system and bringing the industry closer to commercial readiness," said Prof. Amusement. There is definitely something to look forward to. And parking spaces? This commodity, gentlemen, will become more and more rare.
