Sometimes, it just doesn’t pay to drive.
A parking spot recently sold for A LOT in notoriously-expensive Hong Kong.
At $765,000, the final sales-price amounts to $5,380 per square foot. The spot is located adjacent to a luxury apartment complex called the Ultima. The complex is not cheap. Studio apartments at the Ultima – no larger than 900 square feet – have sold for $3.2 million.
The numbers shouldn’t be a surprise. Hong Kong is the fourth most expensive city in the world, per a 2018 analysis by The Economist. By comparison, New York City is ranked the 13th most expensive city. Housing costs certainly contribute to Hong Kong’s status. The city has been the world’s most expensive housing markets for 8 straight years, according to the Toronto Star.
The price of parking has obviously not been spared. An average parking space in Hong Kong costs about $300,000. Businesspeople have been purchasing parking spaces as investments. The market for spaces can be very lucrative, absent the heavy taxes levied on other types of real estate.
The $765,000 paid in Hong Kong still falls short of the record-price ever paid for a parking spot. At least one parking spot in New York City has been purchased in excess of $1 million.