Demand for Parking Spots with Charging Facilities Has Skyrocketed
Real estate enthusiasts are increasingly searching for apartments with electric car charging options, but today charging capabilities or readiness are available in only about a quarter of new developments and a couple of percent of secondary market listings, according to Kinnisvara24 data.
Keywords such as "electric car," "electric car charging option," and "electric car charging readiness" are being used increasingly often in the Kinnisvara24 search engine. "While previously the presence of a parking space was the main competitive advantage or prerequisite when choosing real estate, today electric vehicle charging options have been added to this," added Kinnisvara24 CEO Urmas Uibomäe.
The portal currently has 154 new development projects, of which 26 percent or 35 projects have electric car charging capability or readiness. On the secondary market, however, electric car charging options are marked in only 4 percent of listings.
"While for newer developments creating charging capability became mandatory from March 2021, on secondary market apartment buildings, it is very difficult to create charging options, as the existing electrical networks in the infrastructure are simply not ready for such large additional loads," explained Uibomäe.
Charging capability and charging readiness are also two very different things, the latter requiring the property owner to budget for an additional investment of around two thousand euros. In the case of charging readiness, the property owner has the option to purchase charging equipment from the developer or buy and install a personal charger in their parking space.
In the absence of charging readiness, it is possible to install a charger with a special automation system that manages the load of charging devices and thus prevents overload of the main circuit breaker. Creating a charging option from scratch in this way costs 10,000 euros today, and in residential areas, free-standing parking lots exclude this possibility since it is not possible to install a personal charger there. "For apartment owners, this is certainly one of the main obstacles when purchasing an electric car, and for electric car owners, it is one of the deciding factors when choosing real estate," added Uibomäe.
Kinnisvara24 is the only real estate portal in Estonia owned by local owners, which was created in 2018 to transform the market and offer an affordable alternative for posting listings. The portal is visited by over half a million visitors each month.
