Is this type of arrangement common in this city? I know it's really not much different than sharing an underground parking garage with a bunch of people, but this seems much more personal and intimate. As a relatively private person who values my personal space, not sure this is something I'd be comfortable with (especially at today's loony-tune prices). Seems ripe for potential conflict, when the wrong type of person is involved. Would that type of arrangement turn a lot of buyers off when trying to sell?
Not a common arrangement from what I've seen. As for risk of crappy neighbours, well, that's always a risk. If anything I'd guess the risk is lower with a garage, although I suppose your neighbour could dent your car or something.
I personally saw it as an advantage:
1) Since it was a condo townhouse, the driveway was always plowed before I got up in the morning, so that wasn't an issue of having my own garage. I think the thing I hate the most about owning a detached home is shoveling my driveway.
2) Since it was an enclosed space, one could store crap in there.
3) Since it was directly attached to my unit, I had nowhere extra to walk. No elevators to take. I just walked straight from the garage into my unit.
4) With the the garage, the door is 2 cars wide, so my car being in the garage didn't impede entry/exit for my neighbour's car, and vice versa.
Given the above, I was more than happy to risk sharing a garage with a neighbour. IMO it's nowhere near as bad as sharing driveway parking like a lot of people do in Toronto in small single family homes.
BTW, for about the first half year, my neighbour didn't even have a car, so I got an extra parking spot free for guests for that period. (I just told my neighbour in advance.) (Our condo building didn't have any guest parking spots. It had several cheap Green P parking spots though.)
However, one of my neighbours down the way was even smarter than I was, and demanded that TWO parking spaces be associated with their unit, and both had to be attached to their unit. I'm not sure if they paid a premium (on top of the usual cost of the parking space) for that but they got it, and so they had the entire 2-car garage to themselves, despite only having a 2-bedroom unit like mine. This of course screwed up the allocation of parking spots for the townhouses for other people who didn't put the clause into their contract. A couple of townhouse owners actually had to park in the main condo building.
IIRC, the cost of the parking ranged from $12000-20000 depending upon what they negotiated with the builder, and for some it was included in the overall cost of the unit, and for others they bought it separately. Wow, things were so "cheap" back in those days.