[RahulNagaraj]

A residential area in Hong Kong, China has reportedly sold a parking space for US$ 1.3 million (Rs 9.52 crore).

According to reports, the parking space is situated in one of Hong Kong's most luxurious places, The Peak residential area.



With the US$ 1.3 million dollar transaction, it has now become the world's most expensive parking space. The previous record stood at US$ 980,000 for a parking space also situated in Hong Kong, registered back in 2019.

The reason for the huge amount is said to be due to the result of overcrowding, which has caused real estate prices to peak. Hong Kong is also considered to be one of the world's most expensive cities to live in and is also said to be the global financial hub.

Source: BBC

[Rev4×4]

I wonder if the owner was actually DESPERATE, or was it just some stunt from a billionaires' side, nonetheless, it's crazy, imagine buying a brand new Ferrari Tributo, and then spending 4-5 times of it's price on a small space JUST to be able to park it...talk about crazy real estate prices

[Turbolove]

On a similar note, I remember hearing from a friend who wanted to buy a parking spot in a 15 year old society on carter road, Mumbai being quoted 25 - 30 lacs for a parking spot. Found it quite funny given that a 5 lac rupee swift would be parked in a 25 lac rupee spot.

[SnS_12]

The owners bigger worry would be loosing the ownership of the parking to the Chinese government more than what car or the cost of the car he should park at this spot.

Look at Jack Ma, even billionaire's can't stand up to the communist party.

[TrackDay]

When property prices are sky high, in comparison such parking space prices don't seem to be that expensive. I am pretty sure that the apartment must be priced in the vicinity of a 100 million. For someone who can afford such an apartment, this might seem like peanuts.

Off-Topic : This reminded me of that story (not sure if real/fake) where Vijay Mallya takes a loan and puts his Ferrari as collateral by parking it in a New York bank.

[Malyaj]

There is no point comparing the price of a car with the parking cost. By this logic, everything inside our house is cheaper than the house itself, but we don't think of it in that sense because we too live in the house. A car may reside outside our living rooms but the parking spot is a sort of extension of our house. It is the peculiarities of apartment living which force it to be detached from the rest of the house.

[GTO]

10 crores . Two questions:

1. How much is the house worth then?

2. What's he or she going to park there?

Originally Posted by Turbolove

On a similar note, I remember hearing from a friend who wanted to buy a parking spot in a 15 year old society on carter road, Mumbai being quoted 25 - 30 lacs for a parking spot.

That must be a couple of years back. Prices have gone up even further. In fact, in some parts of Bombay, a parking spot will cost you 1 crore.

[anjan_c2007]

Yes, it has an area of 134 square feet and has cost the buyer US $9000 plus, per square foot. The owner needs to however check that there's no sump below this 134 sq feet area, or else yesterday's Mumbai's Creta caving in event (which many called an act of suicide due to the high fuel prices) could be reenacted.

[RaghuVis]

I think this is not shocking although its a bit too high!

In 2012, while in HK, I used to work in a building which had CENTRAL metro station below in the basement. This station is considered the most connected between many metro lines and had most of the big companies in and around this station.

The parking charges for cars were 8 HK$ per hour, which translates to 64 HK$ per day. At that time, conversion was around 7 INR for 1 HK$. So parking charges at INR was around 450 bucks per day and close to 10K per month.

PS: For reference, an Indian lunch (parcel) was 20 HK$, longest metro rate (including return) would be around 9-10 HK$ if you take monthly pass, bus rate would be around 22-25HK$ per day.

PPS: Not even a single HK workers used to come in their own car. Everyone used Metro. Most of them had Merc/Audi/BMW at home. Only region head and company heads used to come in car mainly because their parking costs were covered by company.

[nakul0888]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjvwK5i6BJU

Here an entire video that explains the crazy high real estate values in hongkong. The Culprit is not at all surprising.

[udy]

Originally Posted by GTO

10 crores . Two questions:

1. How much is the house worth then?

2. What's he or she going to park there?



That must be a couple of years back. Prices have gone up even further. In fact, in some parts of Bombay, a parking spot will cost you 1 crore.

This is actually going rates there and parking places on The Peak are very hard to come by. In fact the cheapest good parking places are around HK$ 1.3M plus on the outskirts and at a exchange rate of HK$ 1=9.4 INR, it would still cost more than a Crore plus.

As to answer your question, the more expensive houses on The Peak cost around US$ 400 Million plus for a 7500 sqft mansion and you can see how the parking spaces cost will be little change as compared to these.

I have attached a few current listings for reference. In fact a 350 sqft house will cost around INR 3 to 4 crores on the outskirts.

https://www.christiesrealestate.com/...he-peak-hk-hkg

Originally Posted by RaghuVis

I think this is not shocking although its a bit too high!

PS: For reference, an Indian lunch (parcel) was 20 HK$, longest metro rate (including return) would be around 9-10 HK$ if you take monthly pass, bus rate would be around 22-25HK$ per day.

PPS: Not even a single HK workers used to come in their own car. Everyone used Metro. Most of them had Merc/Audi/BMW at home. Only region head and company heads used to come in car mainly because their parking costs were covered by company.

Those were the good old days. The current parking charges are nothing less than HK$25 to 40/hour in those areas and an Indian lunch parcel would now be around HK$ 55 to 75 for bare minimum and MTR fares are HK$20+ one way.

Actually you don't need a car in Hong Kong as it would an additional hassle considering tunnel charges everywhere as well as parking issues and with the transport system that HK has, you much better off without a car except on the weekends when you want to drive to a beach or the outskirts.

Sorry for the back to back posts and mods please do merge these into a single post if need be.

[no_fear]

Originally Posted by udy

Actually you don't need a car in Hong Kong as it would an additional hassle considering tunnel charges everywhere as well as parking issues and with the transport system that HK has, you much better off without a car except on the weekends when you want to drive to a beach or the outskirts.

+1. HK is one of the best cities in the world for public transport. The connectivity is spectacular, starting all the way from the airport to HK island.

You own a car in HK if you are living out in the suburbs, have a big family, or have the disposable income.

One small correction in your above statement - MTR is 0nly 20 HKD or more, if you are going from HK Island to Kowloon or NT. Within HK Island or within Kowloon / NT, MTR cost is < 10 HKD.

My older brother is a HK permanent resident. We were talking about the crazy parking price stories and he told me that the garage price is often influenced by investor demand for alternative investments, real estate yield and the loan the buyer gets.

Bank loans in HK are capped to 40 - 50% of the total asset value that a buyer is purchasing. Rental yield for property in HK is less than 2% p.a. (Barely beats inflation).

A normal apartment (300 sq ft) retails for more than 1 mio USD in HK. If you are a HK property investor, you can buy a parking lot for 300k USD, rent it out, and earn yield > 2%.

For the 300k USD price, you source 150k USD from the bank, and the remaining through your savings. It is much more palatable than coughing up 500k USD cash and taking the other as a bank loan.

Given the sky high property prices in HK, a lot of people who want to partake in the property game are priced out, and look at the car garage investment as a proxy.

[udy]

Originally Posted by no_fear

+1. HK is one of the best cities in the world for public transport. The connectivity is spectacular, starting all the way from the airport to HK island.

You own a car in HK if you are living out in the suburbs, have a big family, or have the disposable income.

One small correction in your above statement - MTR is 0nly 20 HKD or more, if you are going from HK Island to Kowloon or NT. Within HK Island or within Kowloon / NT, MTR cost is < 10 HKD.

My older brother is a HK permanent resident. We were talking about the crazy parking price stories and he told me that the garage price is often influenced by investor demand for alternative investments, real estate yield and the loan the buyer gets.

Bank loans in HK are capped to 40 - 50% of the total asset value that a buyer is purchasing. Rental yield for property in HK is less than 2% p.a. (Barely beats inflation).

A normal apartment (300 sq ft) retails for more than 1 mio USD in HK. If you are a HK property investor, you can buy a parking lot for 300k USD, rent it out, and earn yield > 2%.

For the 300k USD price, you source 150k USD from the bank, and the remaining through your savings. It is much more palatable than coughing up 500k USD cash and taking the other as a bank loan.

Given the sky high property prices in HK, a lot of people who want to partake in the property game are priced out, and look at the car garage investment as a proxy.

On the MTR fares, I was responding to the above poster who mentioned that the longest route was around HK$ 9-10 return in 2012. That the current longest routes fares are around HK$ 20+ one way.

And I too am a Hong Kong Permanent Resident, having lived here for over 10 years now, so have seen all the changes first hand all along. As for the Bank Mortgages, you can get much more than 60% of the purchase price as a Mortgage these days and it entirely depends on the Borrowers and their relationship with the Bank.

And you are right on people viewing Parking Spaces as an investment option as against buying apartments these days and hence the demand and the high prices on the parking lots.

[no_fear]

Originally Posted by udy

On the MTR fares, I was responding to the above poster who mentioned that the longest route was around HK$ 9-10 return in 2012.

Ahh my bad, yes, I stand corrected. I missed the previous poster's statement.

I last went to HK in 2019 just when the protests started. It was utter chaos. Couldn't fly out after the protestors went into the airport. Spent a few days crisscrossing the city on the diff MTR lines and just admiring how good the public transport was.

[udy]

Originally Posted by no_fear

I last went to HK in 2019 just when the protests started. It was utter chaos. Couldn't fly out after the protestors went into the airport. Spent a few days crisscrossing the city on the diff MTR lines and just admiring how good the public transport was.

That must be around Aug 2019 as the protests started around June and the Airport lockdown happened around Aug. I have seen the Airport protest pretty closely as I stay closer to the Airport and it was a bad situation all over. Hope HK treated you well. The public transport is one of the best and it sort of makes owning a car a luxury not a necessity.

It has been a bad couple of years for HK as the protests literally shutdown HK from June 2019 till around Jan 2020 and from then onwards the pandemic took over.

In fact the property prices have seen a slight decline over the last year or so due the protests initially, then the implementation of the National Security Law and then the pandemic which has seen a sort of mini exodus for expats.