Turning unused parking into a high-performing tenant amenity
How IFM unlocked flexible parking across its office portfolio — improving tenant access while delivering a 440% ROI.
Flexible tenant parking
Tenants book casual parking when they need it, giving them access beyond their lease allocation without changing lease structures.
Unlocking unused capacity
Unleased parking bays were made available as paid casual parking, turning idle spaces into a new income stream.
Minimal operational overhead
Bookings, payments, and reporting are automated through Parkable, keeping the day-to-day workload low for property teams.
Stronger tenant amenity
More access to parking on busy days improved the tenant experience and reduced everyday friction.
High return on existing assets
Across six office buildings, the initiative delivered an average 440% ROI in 2025.
Amenities that support renewals and long-term value
IFM Investors (IFM) invests on behalf of working people to protect and grow
retirement savings. Owned by Australian pension funds, IFM invests with a
long-term lens, prioritising performance that holds through cycles. Across
its Australian office portfolio, IFM works with its property partner CBRE to
deliver tenant amenities that match what tenants actually need —
supporting asset relevance, stronger renewal outcomes, and enduring
investor value.
IFM’s approach is grounded in a simple idea: the right services, delivered
well, earn tenant commitment—and that commitment is what protects
value through leasing cycles.
Nicole Ward, Head of Portfolio, Office, IFM Investors
Flexible demand meets fixed allocations
Parking utilisation rarely stays still. Tenants change, office occupancy shifts,
and work patterns ebb and flow—but buildings designed for a different era
often don’t.
The result: unleased parking spaces sitting idle, while tenants still struggle
for casual parking on busy days. For asset teams, that shows up as missed
income opportunity and a model that can’t flex with how people actually
use the building.
For IFM, this friction is both an amenity gap and a commercial
gap—tenants need casual access, while unused spaces represent revenue
leakage. That’s why IFM prioritises initiatives that can scale across office
assets. They need to be commercially sound and amenity-positive. Andthey have to be practical for on-site teams—without reinventing the process at every building.
Updating existing assets to meet modern tenant behaviour—without over-engineering the solution.
IFM rolled out a tenant parking platform (Parkable) across office assets
where the opportunity existed, enabling unleased parking
spaces—including EV charging spaces—to be offered as paid casual
parking. The economics were straightforward: minimal enabling works
where needed, and a manageable ongoing cost base—without adding to
the day-to-day workload for on-site teams. The goal was simple: stronger
amenity, better utilisation, and additional income.
In partnership with CBRE and Parkable, IFM piloted the model at 18 Marcus
Clarke St in Canberra and then expanded it to a further 5 office assets
(with one more site in onboarding). Site settings (like availability and
pricing rules) were tailored where needed, but the core approach stayed
consistent.
At each site, the workflow is straightforward: tenants book and pay for
unleased spaces via Parkable’s software (at some sites, this is embedded
in their white-labelled tenant experience app).
Property teams stay in control of the rules, availability, pricing, and access
settings. They can easily view digital car park maps as well as utilisation,
occupancy, and revenue reports. Lease allocations remain unchanged;
tenants gain flexible parking beyond their leases, and unused capacity is
made available as controlled, paid casual parking for tenants when they
need it.
Nicole Ward, Head of Portfolio, Office, IFM Investors
Upgraded amenities. Low capex. High returns.
IFM gained a system that could adapt as tenants and building needschanged. Designed to stay relevant over time, it allowed rules, availability
and pricing to be updated as the tenant mix and demand shifted—without
revisiting lease structures or adding day-to-day workload.
For tenants, the change was simple: more access to casual parking when
they needed it. Across the six live assets, tenant parkers made 57,576
bookings during 2025, and the knock-on effects were immediate — more
predictable mornings and fewer pinch points on busy days.
That experience matters commercially: smoother arrivals support tenant
satisfaction, retention and leasing outcomes—strengthening asset
performance over time.
In 2025, that equated to 440% ROI across the six live assets, measured
against the total cost of the initiative over the year. The remaining asset is
in rollout.
The results
Built-in flexibility that protects relevance over time
- Average 440% ROI across the first six assets (2025)
- 6 office assets (and 1 in rollout) from a single pilot model
- Works with the existing access controls with minimal (or no) additional
investment
- Incremental income from existing capacity
More success stories
IFM Investors: Flexible tenant parking across 6 office assets / 440% ROIAcross IFM’s Australian office portfolio, tenant demand for flexible parking didn’t always match fixed lease allocations. Unused spaces sat idle while tenants still struggled to find casual parking on busy days. By introducing Parkable, IFM turned this underused capacity into a flexible tenant amenity — giving tenants easy access to additional parking while generating incremental revenue from existing assets. Across six buildings, the initiative delivered stronger utilisation, improved tenant experience, and a 440% ROI in 2025.More info
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