World’s most expensive parking space in Hong Kong sells a bay for $969,000

The amount paid is said to be triple the median home price in the city

The Center, currently known as the world’s most expensive 73-storey commercial building, also houses the costliest parking spot on earth. And, according to South China Morning Post, an anonymous buyer recently purchased a parking spot for HKD7.6 million (USD969,000).

Johnny Cheung Shun-yee, one of the 10 investors who paid USD5.15 billion for The Center, explained that “the buyer (who owns an office in the same tower) now needs a car park lot,” which is why he sold one of his four parking spaces in the building.

The buyer paid for a standard parking space measuring about 134.5 square feet (12.5 square metres), equivalent to HKD56,505 per sq ft, basically three times more than the average home price in the city.

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In Hong Kong, however, one in five residents are living below the poverty line.

The lavish purchase simply highlights the wealth gap in the region that has now led to the most catastrophic political unrest in decades. The now violent protests are the result of several years of oversight by the government, caused primarily by the housing affordability and wealth gap.

“Good times or bad times, there are still ultra-rich people paying whatever needed to get what they like,” said Midland Commercial’s district sales director James Mak.

Parking bays have always been marketable in Hong Kong where land is scarce, as a result of the growing number of mainland Chinese nationals acquiring premier commercial real estate for banking, wealth management, and other financial services in the region.