CAR-SHARING as a concept is gaining ground in Australia as property developers are increasingly adopting the concept for their inner-city investments, GoAutoNews Premium has been told.

Developers are saying they are embracing car sharing to entice tenants or buyers to their buildings and to reduce costly car park bays.

At the same time, inner-city councils are applauding the concept as a way of reducing traffic congestion in inner-city streets.

The simple concept of sharing a car is now evolving into a competitive business model that alters traditional car ownership rules and, in time, will have significant implications for the sales structure of car manufacturers and dealers.

Car-sharing – not to be confused with car-pooling that involves a roster of friends alternating their cars for commuting purposes – can potentially save users a lot of money. It is becoming an increasingly popular alternative to owning your own car or using Uber or taxis or public transport.

Many New South Wales and Victorian councils, particularly those in inner-city areas, are now mandating car-sharing bays in all new developments as a means of reducing central business district (CBD) traffic.

Last week, the City of Sydney reported that 10 per cent of all city drivers – or 30,000 residents and businesses – use car-sharing. Sydney has 670 car-share bays, equivalent to 1.6 per cent of the city’s parking spaces.

Lord mayor Clover Moore has announced a change in the city’s car-share policy, ensuring car bays for organisations are retained through to 2020 and prohibiting the sale or transfer of the car bays to new operators.

“This success shows car sharing is an incredibly efficient use of parking spaces for residents and businesses,” Ms Moore said.

“These changes will ensure car-sharing spaces are allocated where they’re needed, well monitored and managed, and that the sector remains competitive.”

A spokesperson for the City of Sydney said new residential and commercial developers were encouraged to provide for car-sharing spaces.

“While the city does not mandate that on-site car-share parking be provided, we expect car-sharing spaces will be included in any large development that includes general parking,” the spokesperson said.

For developers, it also means a reduction in the price of the building as one CBD underground parking bay is estimated to cost $70,000 to build.

Though never part of the original concept, the cars being shared are increasingly low-emission vehicles and are moving up the price bracket into prestige models that reflect the status of the driver and the host organisation.

Australia’s biggest car-share company GoGet has 2100 cars on the roads, 80,000 users and has made large strides into linking with corporations rather than individuals.

It collaborated with developers Frasers Property and Sekisui House to supply up to 60 cars for the $2 billion Central Park Sydney residential and office complex. Residents have access to cars and this negates the need for traditional one-for-one ratio of carbays to apartments.

About 10 other Sydney residential developments – including Southbank and Belvedere Apartments in North Sydney and Trio Apartments in Camperdown – use car-sharing.

Frasers Property project director Mick Caddey said his company was a longtime supporter of car-sharing after introducing GoGet to the Trio building development in 2009.

Though car-sharing is a growing phenomenon, it doesn’t necessarily need to be operated by a specialist company.

Melbourne developer Michael Yates provided a BMW electric car as a share vehicle for residents of his 38-apartment development in South Yarra.

The developer had previously included a share car in two previous apartment buildings, also in South Yarra.

BMW Australia general manager of marketing Stuart Jaffray said that a year ago, there were no inquiries about car-sharing and about BMW’s participation, but that has changed.

“Now, the phone calls are regular. It’s getting busy,” he said.

BMW Australia is focusing on property developers in Sydney and Melbourne but has corporations on the list of potential customers.

It has supplied a BMW i3 electric car to a Melbourne apartment development and more are soon expected to follow.

“We are only about to start but the initial reaction is really, really positive so we are quite keen to develop it,” said BMW Group Australia CEO Marc Werner.

Mr Jaffary said that inquiries from businesses include a high profile Melbourne restaurant that is interested in putting in charging stations.

“It sees, from a sustainability point of view, that it’s a new perspective for them,” he said.

“Offering solutions for their customers – such as participating in the whole zero-emission vehicle concept – is seen as a great add on to their business so they are now talking about what they can do.

“It’s no different from conversations going on now with property developers who see that essentially, this is the way the world is going and they want to be ahead of the curve.”

The attraction of not owning a car has also extended into government fleets.

GoGet’s Chris Vanneste said the NSW government recently completed trials on car sharing vehicles that aim to minimise its own fleet.

“We’re starting the roll-out now with most government departments,” he said.

“It gives the government access to our vehicles when needed, particularly in peak periods, which extend from the city to the suburbs. On the other side, our cars would be hardly used over Christmas.

“If you drive up to 10,000km a year, car-sharing makes sense.”

Mr Vanneste said 30 per cent of GoGet’s business was for government and businesses but that the percentage was increasing.

“Our growth is limited by the car spaces available to meet demand,” he said.

“Growth is faster than the private or consumer market because businesses have better access to existing car parking.”

Australia’s biggest car-sharing complex is Central Park in Sydney where there are 50 GoGet cars in building carparks and a further 10 available on the street.

“The other projects are smaller but there’s a growing number in development and a large interest by future project developers.”

By Neil Dowling