Parking lots are disappearing, and carpark owners are raising rates - driving vehicle owners in the Central Business District (CBD) up the wall.

They are now paying between $160 and $330 in monthly season parking charges - 20 per cent more than last year.

The occasional visitor is also hit, paying up to $4.80 an hour on weekdays until 5pm or 6pm.

But the situation is likely to get worse - transport analysts say drivers will be lucky to find parking spots at all in future, because there is likely to be a shortage in future.

Some 2,000 lots in the CBD area could disappear in the next few years as upcoming development plans for the area take shape. At least seven buildings in the CBD will be shut down for redevelopment.

This will translate to higher demand for the lots still available - and hence, even, higher prices.

Newer buildings also tend to have fewer lots - new kid on the block One Raffles Quay has just one lot for every 1,800 sq ft, compared with the older Hong Leong Building, which offers one for every 1,000 sq ft.

Other new buildings are likely to follow suit.

The result? One Raffles Quay, which houses Deutsche Bank, ABN Amro and Ernst & Young, currently has a waiting list - now closed - of 50 people.

Many developers are reluctant to build multi-storey car parks, preferring instead to use the space for higher revenue-generating office or retail areas.

And digging underground is costly because of tricky engineering problems associated with soft soil conditions in the Shenton Way area.

Developers have also received some leeway from the Land Transport Authority (LTA) and the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA), which said in December 2005 that they can provide 20 per cent fewer parking lots in the CBD.

So far, at least six major carparks, with more than 2,969 lots in total, have raised their fees this year, according to a Straits Times check of 60 operators.

For instance, the newly renovated Golden Shoe and Market Street carparks, owned by CapitaCommercial Trust (CCT) and popular with Shenton Way workers, have raised monthly season parking rates this year by $50, to a total of $290.

As for hourly parking, One Raffles Quay is the priciest at $4.80 an hour, while Chinatown Point, at $1 an hour, is among the cheapest.

But the URA - which charges $1 for every half hour on weekdays till 5pm at its 4,350 CBD lots - said it has no plans to increase charges.

Other operators, however, are going the other way.

Temasek Towers, with 667 lots, intends to up prices soon "in line with other buildings in the vicinity", said a spokesman for CCT, which owns the building. It now charges $252 a month.

Private carpark operators are free to raise prices as and when they see fit because they are not regulated by the Government.

Their plans are supported by surging demand as more cars hit the road - the LTA says the number of cars in Singapore grew by a record 7.5 per cent last year to 465,482 units.

Said Mr Danny Yeo, executive director at property consultancy Knight Frank: "While most office buildings downtown have their own carparks, it is quite obvious that most of them don't have sufficient carpark lots."

In some areas, such as Market Street and Golden Shoe, drivers are having to wait between one and two months for a season parking spot.

Lawyer Aaron Kok, 26, who pays for season parking at Golden Shoe, intends to stop driving into the city.

He said: "I don't think I am going to drive to work anymore. It makes more economic sense to take the train."