World's most expensive parking space costs $1 million
Ten parking spaces have gone in sale in Manhattan, priced at an eye-watering $1 million - which is over £600,000 - and makes the outlandish cost of parking in London look like small change.
They will be built underneath a new apartment block, where a home will set you back at least £8.7 million. However, because of the outlandish cost of these parking spaces, they're actually more expensive per square foot than the apartments above.
The buyers won't even own the spot: they'll get a 99 year lease on them, and they'll only be able to hold the space if they own an apartment in the building. If they move out, they'll have to sell the parking space too.
Why so expensive?
The astonishing cost is because the block will be built in New York's Soho area, where parking is a nightmare. Ironically, it will actually be built on the site of an old car park - making those elusive spots even harder to come by. The scarcity of the spaces means this one is not just highly practical - it's also an enormous status symbol.
According to the Mirror, it's a sign of the massive cost of parking across Manhattan - where in the past year parking spaces have been selling for an average of $136,052.
The New York Times quoted Shaun Osher, founder and chief executive of CORE (which is handling the sale) who said: "We're looking at setting the benchmark. In real estate, location defines value and parking is no exception to that rule."
Pricey rivals
It's actually not the first time a parking space has gone on the market at this price in the city. In May 2012 a duplex penthouse on 11th Street went on sale with a parking space priced at $1 million. The parking space and $50 million apartment are still on the market.
Once these spaces sell, they'll take the title for the most expensive parking space ever sold. At the moment that position is held by a space in London. The most expensive space ever sold in the UK was back in February, when a spot underground near the Royal Albert Hall sold for £400,000. At the time the media calculated that for the same money someone could park in the NCP car park round the corner for 31 years.
This London space is around £5,000 more than the most expensive spaces in Hong Kong, which are owned by a man who has made a fortune buying and selling parking spaces in the city. In 2012 he told the media that he had been offered $640,000 (which works out at £395,000) for one of two parking spaces he owns in the heart of the city, but that he had refused the offer because he's in no hurry to sell.
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