We are buying a 5.5 room (4 bed) semi detached house in a small village not too far from Schänis near the Walensee. We initially opted only to buy 1 parking space in a shared underground garage that is part of the development but am weighing up buying a second parking space.
We don’t need a second parking space and to that end I would rather not spend an extra 35k but I am thinking if we ever come to sell the house it may be unattractive to some buyers if it only has one space given the rural location and likely greater car dependency. There are no parking spots otherwise available at the moment to rent or buy in the area according to homegate so I’m thinking the option for a buyer to meet their second car parking needs close by is limited.
Would appreciate any opinions? I guess it comes down to the law of averages in terms of likely buyer’s needs.
Yes, good investment I think. And you could rent it out to someone who has second car in the meantime.
We have one single parking space at out UK development, and there are a few visitor places. Endless issues recently with people with 2 cars either using other people's places or permanently using visitor spaces. This is not being very carefully monitored. So I am sure you could rent other space for decent money.
Get the second space, at the current interest rates, the additional cost is negligable. I have my second spot rented out to someone who was unable to get one because both he and his girlfriend have a car but the 3.5 room apartments all only got allocated one parking spot when the building was constructed. Furthermore, your home is something that would typically appeal to families and most will have two cars, making any building with insufficient parking an unattractive proposition.
There is also the "peace of mind" aspect of not having to worry about where to put an additional car or motorbike. You say yourself that there is limited parking, so that puts pressure on any visitor spaces nearby; if you are someone who often has visitors, having your own spot will avoid any discussions about who uses the visitor spots how much. You would not believe the arguments that this minor detail can cause, either because some people have a very restrictive view of what is appropriate while others quite frankly take the mick in terms of overuse.
Absolutely agree, buy the second space. We regret not buying an additional space in our second home. I don't know if you have children, but it's only takes a moment for them to go from being kids on bikes to car owning adults. We are currently renting extra parking spaces for this reason and so that friends can visit us and park overnight (or at least longer than the restrictions on normal visitor parking spaces allow).
All very helpful inputs and supports my thinking. I was probably slightly reticent just because I remain a tight northerner at heart and will pay out of savings as I’ve already arranged the financing and am not inclined to revisit that.
Get it. Makes the apartment more sellable. Anyway you are probably going to pay the bank about... Fr.30 per month?, and it is not so difficult to rent it out for 3 times the price.
I don't think many buildings are built with 2 parking lots per apartment, so some of your neighbours will want an additional spot from time to time.
Whenever I didn't have a second car, I rented ours out to our neighbours. One neighbour used the parking lot for his motorcycle.
That may be much less of an option in, as OP writes, rural Aargau. Space is far less difficult to get there.
Nonetheless I agree that OP should buy it, the 35k mean increased flexibility. 5.5 rooms may mean some 7-digit price, making the additional parking lot only 3-4%.