R8.7-million for a parking space!
EXPENSIVE inner-city parking might be a foreign concept to South Africans, who regularly plonk their cars on shoulders, sidewalks or even in the middle of a lane and get away with it, but overseas it’s a different story.
Most metro dwellers in big cities around the world make use of public transport because the cost of parking can be exorbitant, but a wealthy man in Hong Kong has recently taken pricey parking to a new level.
Businessman Kwan Waiming paid $664 200 (R8.7-million) for a single space in the Chinese financial hub, setting a record for the most expensive parking space in a residential building according to Reuters.
Parking has long been a prized commodity in landscarce Hong Kong. Tenants outnumber available slots by as much as 20 to 1 in some residential buildings, creating strong demand for spaces.
Hong Kong is currently one of the most expensive property markets in the world and private home prices have been hitting record highs for six months in a row.
But for reference, this single parking costs more than a 19 square metre “nano apartment” which on average sells for around R6.5-million in Hong Kong.
The space is reportedly underneath a high end apartment building called The Upton, where Wai-ming apparently has three parking spots in total. We wonder how much he paid for the other two, and, more importantly, what cars occupy these spaces.