Update | Who’d buy a car park space for HK$4.8 million? Someone on Conduit Road just did
The car parking space of a luxury apartment at the Mid-Levels on Hong Kong island sold for HK$4.8 million (US$619,000) on Thursday, setting a record for the city’s most expensive lot.
The sale of the 135-square feet space at 55 Conduit Road was a confirmor deal, where properties are resold before the original transaction had been completed, according to documents filed at Hong Kong’s Land Registry.
The original owner, who hailed from mainland China, bought a unit in the apartment complex together with the parking space for HK$56 million last month. He sold the lot this week to another resident, who already owns a parking space.
In May 2014, a space at 39 Conduit Road sold for HK$4.24 million.
The sale burnishes Conduit Road’s reputation as quite possibly the most expensive place to leave a vehicle in Hong Kong. On Saturday, Phoenix Property Investors released 54 parking lots at The Morgan apartments at 31 Conduit Road for sale at between HK$3.28 million and HK$4.38 million each.
“Investment interest in the sector is growing as the number of parking lots are declining especially in Mid-Levels,” said Louis Chan, managing director at Centaline Property Agency’s residential department.
It’s more expensive to park a vehicle at the Mid-Levels than it is to accommodate a household in Sha Tin north of the island across Victoria Harbour, where a 327 square feet flat costs HK$4.3 million.
Prices of parking lots are following the explosive surge in the value of apartments in Hong Kong, because the island just doesn’t have enough space to meet the demand of wealthy households that typically own more than one vehicle.
“Residents at super luxury properties own more than one car,” Chan said. “They have to buy an additional parking lot in the secondary market at higher prices.”
As many as 1,574 parking lots valued at a combined HK$2.61 billion changed hands in the three months through September, according to data by Centaline Property Agency, the highest number of transactions since the last quarter of 2015.
“The value of car parking spaces will increase as home prices soar,” said Wong Leung-sing, associate director of research at Centaline Property Agency.
The average price of a car park has risen 204 per cent between 2005 and 2015, tracking the 233 per cent increase of apartment prices in the same period, according to Dorothy Chow, regional director of valuation advisory service at JLL.
“The average price of a car parking space rose from about HK$397,000 in 2005 to HK$1.2 million last year,”she said.
