Valuing parking garages and district garages: turnover, concrete maintenance, and charging infrastructure

A car park with 600 spaces in the city centre, built in 1978, in technically sound condition. Deriving the value solely from the number of spaces misses the point. The same 600 spaces can generate vastly different returns depending on location, tariff, and turnover – and in many buildings, the upcoming concrete repair work can wipe out several years' results in one go.

Valuing parking garages therefore means capturing three things together: income generated by frequency, a building structure with unusually severe aging, and a use whose legal framework is currently shifting noticeably.

Why parking structures are a separate asset class

Three characteristics distinguish multi-storey car parks and quarter garages from other commercial properties.

First, the income mechanics: The reference metric is not the rent per square meter, but the revenue per parking space per year. It is derived from short-term parking frequency, long-term parking contracts, and tariff structure. A building with a high proportion of short-term parking generates multiple times the revenue per space compared to a pure long-term parking property, but reacts immediately to any changes in the surrounding area.

Second, the cost structure: The operation is cost-intensive with high fixed costs. Security, cleaning, lighting, cash register systems, insurance, and administration are incurred largely independently of occupancy levels. If footfall drops by one-fifth, the result declines disproportionately.

Third, the aging: Driven parking decks are under constant stress from de-icing salts. Chloride ingress leads to reinforcement corrosion, and its remediation is not a cosmetic repair but an intervention in the structural system. Annex 1 of the ImmoWertV consequently sets a total useful life of 40 years for underground and multi-storey garages as individual structures, whereas for individual garages it is 60 years.

Object types and their valuation logic

The type determines the income structure, operator dependency, and conversion reserve – and thus the valuation approach.

• Urban car parks

  • 200 to 1,000 parking spaces, predominantly short-term parkers, hourly tariff
  • Revenue depends on retail, gastronomy, and events in the vicinity
  • Highest earnings potential of the asset class, yet highest dependence on transport policy

• Underground garages

  • Usually part of a residential, office, or commercial property, often in condominium or fractional ownership
  • Long-term parkers dominate, with stable but low yields
  • Building waterproofing and drainage are the critical components

• District and mobility garages

  • Centralized systems for an entire district, often including charging infrastructure, logistics lockers, and bicycle parking facilities
  • Contractually bound to surrounding properties via urban development agreements and encumbrances (Baulasten)
  • These bindings are value-determining and must be fully included in the rights review

• Park-and-ride facilities

  • At transport hubs, often under municipal ownership or subject to leasehold rights
  • Politically set tariffs, rarely cost-covering
  • Without a market rent, a fictitious rent must be determined, otherwise the income approach will collapse

• Open parking facilities

  • Ground-level parking spaces without significant structural facilities
  • The value lies predominantly in the land and the building rights, not in the surface material
  • Frequently interim use with short-term termination option

The boundaries are fluid. What matters is who operates the business and who holds tariff authority.

The value driver: turnover and tariff structure

The income side of a car park structure can be reduced to five key figures:

• turnover rate – how often a parking space is sold in a day. It distinguishes a city centre building with four to six transactions per space from a long-term parking facility with a single one.
• Dwell Time and Tariff Jumps – the revenue curve is not linear. Where the tariff jumps occur determines the turnover at the same frequency.
• Long-term parker share – it stabilizes the base occupancy but blocks spaces during the most profitable hours of the day. A high proportion reduces both the risk and the peak earnings.
• Frequency generators in the vicinity – Retail, clinics, government offices, cinemas, and event venues within walking distance. If an anchor tenant leaves, foot traffic drops immediately, not only at the next lease expiry.
• Competition and parking space policy – new facilities, managed street space, resident parking fees and the conversion of driving lanes have a direct impact on frequency and tariff flexibility.

The last point is regularly underestimated. Where a city removes street parking spaces, a parking garage can gain; where it limits overall traffic flow into the city centre, it loses. This development is not a blind forecast; it is documented in traffic development plans, parking space regulations, and council resolutions, making it verifiable.

Building condition: concrete repair is the true value driver

For almost no other type of use does the structural condition so directly determine the value. The chloride load and carbonation depth of the drivable slabs, the condition of the waterproofing, coating, and joints, the functionality of the drainage, and the question of whether maintenance has already been carried out and with which system must be examined.

For the valuation, this leads to three consequences. Firstly, a maintenance backlog does not belong in a blanket discount but must be included as a specifically determined amount in the calculation. Secondly, the temporal progression must be depicted, as the measure restricts operations during execution; for this, the DCF method the more honest tool. Thirdly, a proper maintenance shifts the economic remaining useful life significantly, which must also be conceptually understandable.

Additionally, ramp gradient, parking space width, clear height, and driving lane width must be recorded. Facilities from the 1960s and 1970s were designed for significantly smaller vehicles. Where a vehicle typical today can only be parked with difficulty, the actually usable number of spaces falls below the approved number.

Charging infrastructure: what was once a requirement becomes a value factor

The Building Electricity Mobility Infrastructure Act (GEIG) obliges owners of existing non-residential buildings with more than 20 parking spaces to install at least one charging point after January 1, 2025, pursuant to § 10 GEIG. For new construction and major renovations, more stringent requirements apply to cable infrastructure and charging points.

Both are relevant for the valuation. On the cost side, there are grid connection, capacity increase, load management and fire protection concept; on the revenue side, there are charging revenues, longer dwell time and a better position in the competition for long-term parkers. The decisive factor is the available grid connection capacity at the site: it limits expansion more strictly than any funding question and must be inquired with the grid operator, not estimated.

Additional requirements from fire protection must also be considered. For vehicles with high-voltage batteries, some approval authorities require additional conditions, particularly in enclosed underground car parks. These conditions may limit the expansion of charging infrastructure and must be included in the review of the approval status.

Which valuation method fits

Conversion as a value reserve – and its limits

The expectation that a car park can be converted into logistics space, workshop areas, or a data centre in case of necessity rarely withstands scrutiny. Key factors include clear height, floor load-bearing capacity, ramp geometry, column grid spacing, and whether the sloped floors can even be converted into level storeys.

More realistic are partial conversions: micro-depots for parcel delivery on the ground floor, bicycle storage facilities, vehicle rental, advertising space on the facade, and photovoltaic systems on the top floor. These options significantly increase revenue and, unlike a complete conversion, can actually be implemented without affecting the structural framework.

Where genuine conversion is imminent, planning law must also be examined. A parking structure that exists solely due to a third-party parking space obligation cannot simply be removed: the obligation is typically embedded in building commitments or urban development contracts and binds the legal successor.

Typical valuation occasions

• Transaction and Due Diligence – Price negotiation, operator agreement, condition assessment of the load-bearing structure.
• Financing – in the mortgage lending value report under the Mortgage Lending Value Ordinance (BelWertV), the restricted third-party usability and the need for maintenance immediately impact the value.
• Municipal Valuation Occasions – Contribution into a corporate vehicle, sale, grant of leasehold rights, and adjustment of leasehold rents.
• Inheritance, divorce and settlement – common in underground garages and individual parking spaces in divided ownership.
• Taxation – Purchase price allocation and property tax; railing systems, ticket machines, and charging facilities must be assessed for their status as operating equipment.
• Project development – Feasibility study and project cost calculation for neighbourhood garages and mobility hubs.
• Acquisition and follow-up valuation for funds – For real estate special assets under the German Investment Code (KAGB), the consideration must not significantly exceed the value determined by external valuers (§ 231 KAGB). The valuation is carried out by two independent external valuers (§ 249 KAGB), with subsequent revaluation generally required within a period of three months (§ 251 KAGB). Key areas of review include deferred maintenance and frequency assumptions.

What a robust appraisal report must contain

• the approved number of parking spaces and the actually usable number, shown separately,
• a revenue analysis after short-term parkers, long-term parkers, and special uses over several years,
• the turnover rate and their derivation from counting data or cash register evaluations,
• a condition assessment of the load-bearing structure – with a specifically quantified maintenance requirement and schedule,
• the status of the charging infrastructure including available connection capacity and outstanding obligations under the GEIG,
• the rights verification regarding building covenants, third-party parking obligations, urban development agreements, and leasehold rights,
• a sensitivity analysis for frequency, tariff, maintenance costs, and discount rate.

Conclusion

Valuing car parks means jointly representing a high-frequency operation and a technically demanding structure. The number of parking spaces only describes the capacity. What it generates is determined by turnover and tariff, and what remains is determined by the condition of the ceilings.

Those who cleanly separate both and treat the municipality's parking policy as a data source rather than an uncertainty arrive at a robust result. Those who extrapolate turnover per parking space from a good year are valuing a snapshot.

Related special properties with comparable operational and technical dependency treat the contributions to event arenas and stadiums and to industrial properties.

The version of the law to be applied in an appraisal report is determined by the valuation date.