Photo: RNZ / Marika Khabazi
A private car park charging up to $74 a day is being called the most expensive parking space in the country.
First Up visited Wilson Parking on Fort Street in Auckland's CBD where an early bird spot cost $55 a day if you pay using the Park Mate app or $74 if using the machine on site.
For casual parking it starts at $16 on the app and $22 per hour for using the on site machine.
One man told First Up it was not always this expensive.
"Back in the days it was a lot cheaper, but I have no idea why it just jumped so high right now. I mean, two hours, $44, people don't make that when they work. They don't make $23. That's crazy. Great business, right?"
A few tourists who came in to the city to run errands said they were leaving because the Wilson carpark was simply too expensive.
Chris Schulz, senior investigative journalist at Consumer NZ, said he could not find a carpark in the country more expensive than the Wilson site on Fort St.
"We looked into all of the major centres where you would expect car parks to be pretty expensive. Auckland's definitely up there, it's definitely the most expensive. I guess you'd expect that.
"I don't think you'd expect the extreme prices that Wilson Car Park on Fort St in particular is charging, $22an hour is like every car going into that car park is earning minimum wage," he said.
Just over 60 percent of New Zealanders commute to work by car.
In Auckland CBD it costs at least $5 an hour in the council-owned Downtown, Civic and Victoria Street carparks. The maximum fee per day is $24.
When it comes to street parking, there's no charge if you leave within 10 minutes. After that it's at least $4 an hour on weekdays.
In Wellington CBD, the hourly rate in a council parking building is $5, while in Christchurch it is $4.30.
In New Plymouth, the newly opened Downtown carpark charges $3 per hour, but is running a half-price special until the end of the year.
Further south you can put the 'car' in 'Invercargill' with the first 30 minutes free in the central carpark and $3.50 an hour after that.
It could be the cheapest town in the country to park, with no charge for half an hour on the street, then only $1 an hour after that.
In a statement on the Fort Street chartes, Wilson Parking said its prices were primarily driven by supply and demand.
"As a small site in the heart of Auckland's CBD, it is highly sought after site.
"Beyond this, to make parking more affordable, we offer ParkMate, which provides rates 25 percent lower than machine prices and virtually eliminates breach notice risks, if used correctly.
"Our new ParkMate Guest feature also allows drive-up customers to access these discounts without needing to download the app."
Schulz said the company encouraged people to use the carpark app which provided slightly cheaper rates down to $16 an hour, but most people who drive into the carpark don't have time to download it.
"Most people ... they don't notice the parking app.
"They roll in there and ... they've parked the car they've got out and they've looked at the prices and it's $22 an hour."
It is not just just parking prices that are higher than usual at the site, he said,
"If you're late, they will ping you with this extra $85 fee.
"They wouldn't tell me how quickly you get charged $85, nut I've looked through the Google reviews and a lot of people complain about it.
"A lot of people are maybe 10 minutes late, 15 minutes late back to the car. But you know, a week, two weeks later they get a breach bill."
A QR code at the Fort St park can be scanned to read the terms and condition, and those said a breach could result in an $85 notice.
But Schulz said said Wilson Parking did not make it easy to find the fine print.
"Wilson is hiding its terms and conditions behind a QR code that is right at the bottom of the sign ... there's no sign up in that car park that says you're liable for an $85 fine if you overstay."
Auckland Transport estimates Auckland CBD has at least 21,000off-street carparks in buildings owned by council and private operators like Wilsons.
Despite that - several drivers at the carpark with a $74 early bird rate told First Up they could not find anything else nearby.
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