Saigon’s parking lot owners say one-price regulation unfair

Accordingly, prices for non-public parking lots are limited to VND4,000 (US$0.18) for parking during daytime --between 5:00 am and 9:00 pm, and VND5,000 ($0.22) for nighttime.

For cars, the respective limits are VND15,000 ($0.67) and VND30,000 ($1.34).

However, the one-price parking lot policy, applicable to both lots using modern technology and lots simply using poles and ropes, has been called unfair by local building developers.

Nguyen Phu Cuong, head of customer service at Pearl Plaza in Binh Thanh District, said the building has been going against the regulation by imposing higher parking fees and heavy surcharges for those who leave their vehicles overnight.

Cuong explained that such fees were introduced to discourage visitors not using the building’s services from taking up space in its already crowded lot.

The plaza currently has three basements floors for parking which mainly serve the 3,000 people who work in its offices, as well as customers who visit the attached shopping mall, cinema, and supermarket.

Prior to the introduction of higher fees, factory workers would park their motorbikes for the entire day in the plaza and take their company’s bus to work in the neighboring provinces of Dong Nai or Binh Duong, Cuong explained.

Some even went as far as leaving their vehicles for months on end, only to be charged with a few thousand dong under the city’s regulation, he added, forcing those who actually worked in the building to find parking elsewhere.

Similarly, the parking lot of Ho Chi Minh City’s iconic Bitexco Financial Tower in District 1 is also charging motorbikes VND5,000 ($0.45) per hour, while cars pay VND50,000 ($2.23) in the first two hours and an additional VND20,000 ($0.89) for each additional hour.

Nguyen Van Tien, an investor behind a parking garage in Tan Phu District said it cost an average of VND4 million ($179) for each square meter of parking in his lot.

At that price, a space large enough for one car costs VND100 million ($4,464), Tien said.

Under the current parking fee regulations, Tien said it would take forever for him to see any return on investment.

“Technically I’m allowed to charge customers higher than stipulated by the regulation, since my parking building does not fall under its scope of governance,” Tien said. “However, it would still take more than ten years to see a profit.”

Tien said the cost of investment on underground parking lots is more than two times that of parking garages, a discouraging statistic for developers.