In today’s Brisbane daily mX Newspaper Torny Jensen wrote the following article about the costs of parking  – and how Brisbanites, particularly in the CBD area, are searching for parking alternatives such as those offered by SpaceOut.

Workers on park avenue

Fed-up city workers are ditching expensive CBD carparks for cheaper backyard spots.

Brisbane was ranked as the seventh moist expensive city in the world for parking in the most recent Colliers International Global CBD Parking Rate survey, with motorists having to pay a median monthly cost of $596 for parking.

The survey found Brisbanites were spending more on their parking than those living in Tokyo or New York.

But a local website is revolutionising city parking by matching desperate motorists with inner-city tenants who have room to spare in carparks backyards and garages.

SpaceOut.com.au advertises private car spaces for rent, and places ads for commuters hoping to find cheap car parks close to their work.

This morning the site offered an undercover parking space in South Brisbane for $50 a week or $160 a month

Meanwhile a space with double-swipe security protection at Spring Hill was being advertised for the bargain price of #240 a month.

Spaceout’s Andy Henderson said many private carpark providers were inner-city residents who lived and socialised in the city and chose not to have a car.

“We’re getting a lot more inner-city accommodation, and a lot of those, for example are being filled by foreign students who don’t have a car.” he said.

“They see this as an opportunity to subsidise their rent.“