The days of inner city homes commanding hundreds of thousands of dollars more for a car space may be numbered with the dawn of driverless cars, according to a Silicon Valley entrepreneur.

With self-driving cars tipped to be commonplace within the next 10 years, what is currently desirable in Australia’s congested cities, most notably Sydney and Melbourne, is set to change, according to Stanford University fellow and American technology entrepreneur Vivek Wadhwa.

At an Urban Development Institute of Australia workshop, Mr Wadhwa said that within five years most automotive manufacturers expected to have self-driving cars commercially available.

“It’s consensus right now that we’re going to get that. It’s going to transform cities like never before,” he said.

Parking problems would cease completely, with cars automated to drop commuters at work and pick them up again, and able to be kept wherever is suited.

For home buyers with no intention to sell within the next seven to 10 years, Mr Wadhwa said they should disregard parking as a worthwhile factor.

But it’s not time to give up on the inner-city blue-chip dream.

“Cities won’t die, they will become more desirable without cars polluting them,” Mr Wadhwa told Domain.

He’s not the only forward-thinker who expects car parks to become less valued.

Simon Dehne, a social futurist who predicts emerging trends at Conscious Futures, said they would be unnecessary in the city.

Yet taking parking off the list of must-haves isn’t the only way it will shake up property – it would also allow sites in the city to be rejuvenated.

“CBD parking becomes obsolete and this space is used for more offices or apartments, making the inner CBD very attractive,” he said.

“New land areas can be opened as the need to develop a public infrastructure is removed.”

He expected this would happen within the next 10 to 20 years.

It may even open up locations that were further away since “drivers” could sleep on their way in to a city-based job, be on their phones legally or even work. Road speeds could also increase because driverless cars would presumably be safer and more efficient.

Mr Wadhwa argued that governments spending money on public transport infrastructure should also reconsider.

“Cities that are planning railroads that will be coming online a decade from now should think twice,” he said.

“We will be able live 100-plus miles away from the hustle and bustle of cities.”

Urban Development Institute of Australia chief executive Stephen Albin said a lot of people thought it wouldn’t happen – but nine years ago there weren’t even any iPhones.

“The government can’t even cope with Uber – but driverless cars are already a reality,” he said.

Crucially, driverless cars would also increase the possibility of affordable housing for Sydneysiders facing a $1 million median house price and Melburnians seeing auction clearance rates continue to soar.

“This will allow high-speed transport far out of the city, allowing people to live on the fringe, affordably, if they really wanted to,” Mr Albin said.

He believes it would also pave the way for one of the biggest overhauls of the planning system in System, which he said was created “before desktop computers were”.

“This innovation will change the shape of our cities and there will be no congestion.”

In November, South Australia will host the first International Driverless Cars Conference in the southern hemisphere, including Australia’s first driverless car trials.

This will include Volvo’s driverless vehicle used in Sweden’s Drive Me project, which aims to see customers using self-driving cars as early as 2017.

Washington-based National Real Estate Advisors is currently completing a white paper about the effect of driverless cars on property.