Hong Kong is one of the most vibrant but also congested and expensive cities in the world.

 

Finding a parking space is a competitive business.  read more

 

When they got off for sales, single space changed hand in Hong Kong for hundreds and thousands of dollards. Tim McDonald reports.

 

In and out of the city, it is tough to find a space to park, and there is always someone who smells the business opportunity. 

 

 

" This is my car park here, a tiny little one but in the heart of Hong Kong. I operated this car park over 15 years. " That is Josh Wong.

 

 

There is room  for may be a dozen car parks , with the attendant constantly rearranging them like a puzzle trying to fit more in.

 

"According to government figures, there are about 600,000 registered private vechiles in Hong Kong, there are also roughly 600,000 parking spaces in Hong Kong. Theoretically its one to one , should be ok."

 

"But if you take your car out to shopping arcade or you take your car out to work, you need at least double the parking spaces."

 

 

Out on the street, a rival makes money as a sort of informal valet , moving cars between meter spaces before the parking inspector tickets them.  Of course another option is to rent a space by the month or even buy one. Parkinghk.com received almost 100 eqnuiries a day.

 

 

Its not just people who want to put their car but investor who may think they may turn a profit.

 

"80% of the people buying parking space would be looking forward to capital appreciation. Its very unlikely that a car owner would buy a parking space just park a car. Its not justifiable."

 

Some invest because they dont have quite enough money to buy an apartment in this notoriously expensive city. It also helps the transaction tax for parking space is much less than for an apartment.

 

In this noisy corner of Hong Kong Westend., a space went for staggering US$660,000, now thats a record !  Across the road there is a public spot where you can get a space for about US$382 a month. 

 

This is a city where a lot of monty doesnt necessarily go far. Increasingly developers are selling nano flat ,actually are not whole lot larger than a parking space, Some cases there are not more expensive either. 

 

Dennis Ma is the head of Research of Hong Kong real estate firm, Jone Lang Laselle."You are looking at an average amount of US$200,000 for 200 square foot unit. We will say a lot coming up to the market. I think what it shows you the property market is hot in general. It does not matter whether you talk about commercial property or residential property, now even car parking. Rental yield are not very high for parking spaces , but the price is going up."

 

Thats because Planning Board has reduced the number of parking spaces required for each apartment. So the number of cars is increasing more quickly than the number of spaces. 

 

Of course if parking just makes car ownership too expensive,  you can just do what other 4 million people here do everyday, and just take public transport.