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.

Key highlights

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.

About

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.

“Great buildings stand the test of time by evolving with the people who use them. For us, Parkable was a practical way to do that — improving the day-to-day tenant experience while making better use of existing capacity. ”

Nicole Ward, Head of Portfolio, Office, IFM Investors

Motivation

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. And they have to be practical for on-site teams—without reinventing the process at every building.

Fix

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.

“With minimal upfront investment, the unused parking capacity started generating income. Across the six buildings using Parkable, the return has been exceptional. ”

Nicole Ward, Head of Portfolio, Office, IFM Investors

Impact

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

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