This photo shows a short-term tenancy car park located at Fo Shing Road, Pak Shek Kok, Tai Po in Hong Kong. (PHOTO / HKSAR GOVERNMENT)

Hong Kong residents said the first charges increase at public parking lots in four years is generally acceptable, but called for more parking slots and charging stations, as well as smarter service to provide more convenience to drivers.

Ten of the government’s multi-story public parking lots increased the rent from Tuesday, with monthly rate for private cars and vans going up by HK$150. After the fare changes, the quarterly rent for private cars and vans ranges from HK$6,150 to HK$13,650.

Chan Yuen-tung, a private car driver who frequently drives to work, said the increase is acceptable, as the average fee is still much cheaper than private parking lots, whether in terms of hourly, monthly, or quarterly price

Chan Yuen-tung, a private car driver who frequently drives to work, said the increase is acceptable, as the average fee is still much cheaper than private parking lots, whether in terms of hourly, monthly, or quarterly price.

After the increase, the parking fee at City Hall, in Central, is still only HK$24 per hour by day. In contrast, private parking lots in Causeway Bay and Admiralty charge as much as HK$42 per hour.

The only pity is that government parking lots are usually small and it’s very hard to get a slot, she said.

Sze Hiu-sing, another private car owner, expressed support for the price adjustment of government parking lots in business areas, saying that it can encourage residents to use public transportation more frequently.

He added that he does not support raising prices for parking lots near public housing estates, because many residents need to drive to work, and an increase in parking fees in residential areas would increase the cost of living for them.

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Private car owner Derek Tsang said that the fare increase is reasonable, against the backdrop of soaring prices of commodities, but it falls short of the expectations of the public.

He noted that as government properties have no land costs, officials should better use the value of the lands to serve the interests of local residents.

Tsang highlighted the various cost increases faced by drivers, including the sharp hikes in parking fees at private parking lots, the continuous rise of auto-fuels and the increased tolls of the Cross-Harbour Tunnel and Eastern Harbour Tunnel. These all lead to the continuous increase in driving costs, he said.

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Jacky Ko Chung-kit, a Hong Kong resident who only drives occasionally, believes that most people in Hong Kong who drive regularly enjoy relatively good economic conditions, so they could accept reasonable increase in parking lot prices.

He added that this is also the first price increase since 2019, and the government parking lots also covered some downtown places such as City Hall in Central.

But he also noted that the price hike may discourage some people who have not yet purchased a car from doing so.

Ko suggested that the government should provide more car charging stations in public parking lots to encourage the use of new energy vehicles. He also said he hopes that the government can develop an app for public parking lots that shows usage rates and promotes the use of more electronic payment methods, such as WeChat Pay and Alipay, as currently only Octopus is available.