Most Expensive Parking Space in the UK: $450 Thousand

A parking lot in London’s upscale market of Hyde Park Gardens has been put up for sale for a whopping £300,000 ($447156.05 USD), which is close to twice the average buying price for residential properties in the United Kingdom.

The posh spot measuring  11 feet x 12 feet costs more than double the aggregate price of £162,000 ($241,464.27 USD) per house sold in England and Wales last month.

Estate agents have experience in selling similar parking spaces in the area, which went upwards of £250,000 ($372630.04) each. The agents have even said that several buyers have already shown their intent in owning the six-figure lot. The trend of owning expensive parking spaces is on the rise in Hyde Park, one of London’s most coveted addresses, where realty prices can reach as high as £15 million ($22.3 million). Residents need to shell out as much as £1,299 ($1936.19) per square foot for availing the opportunity of buying a property here. Housing prices in Westminster and Hyde Park areas costs more than a Rolls-Royce, and 10 times as much as a BMW 7 series.

The sky-high parking lot prices can be attributed to the inverse proportion in availability of parking spaces and increase in buying residential properties. Moreover, the fact that new buyers will pay more than the price of a mid-sized residential apartment for the luxury of owning their private parking space is suggestive of such high prices of parking spaces in the Westminster area. Current residents are also expected to show their willingness to secure this parking lot to be able to park their vehicles closer to their homes.

Parking violation penalties in the Westminster area of London range between £80 ($119.24) and £130 ($193.77) relying on the strictness of the offence, which can also be halved if paid within 14 days. This means, that a minimum of £40 ($59.62) fine would take more than 20 years to pile up £300,000 in fines. Charging sky-high prices for parking lots is not something new, since a couple of year’s back a similar parking lot in the famed super-market chain of Harrods was sold for £200,000 ($298104.04). Other notable highs in parking prices in the UK include three spots in Cornwall, St. Ives, which were sold for a combined sum of £160,000 ($238483.23).

The residents of Hyde Park Gardens may be fortunate enough to splurge such outrageous sums at things as mundane as parking lots, however, the less privileged would rather spend that sum on buying something more substantial and spacious.

A five bedroom property in the Rothwell area of Leeds replete with gardens, a driveway and a separate parking lot can be bought with the same price as the miniature parking lot in central London. Buyers with a corpus of £300,000 can also splurge in buying a luxury apartment in the in the city center at Birmingham or a 2-bedroom apartment in a stone-engraved Victorian era building in the prized Clifton area of Bristol.

Even in London, the same figure could suffice for a three bedroom porch house in Canning Town, a three bedroom apartment in Shepherds Bush, or a studio apartment in the City-center.

Via: Bornrich