Every once in a while we learn about ridiculous prices for parking spaces and it inevitably makes one think that there’s something really wrong with the world we live in when a parking space is available to purchase for more than double the price of an average home.
It happens every so often in London, the city of choice for Russian oligarchs and other tycoons from around the world. In a metropolis where the housing market is one of the most expensive in the world, parking spaces also trade hands for prohibitive sums.
A new record for London and the UK may be set by a parking spot that has recently gone on sale for £400,000 ($665,840), nearly 2.5 times the cost of an average UK home. The underground space is located near London’s Royal Albert Hall in Kensington and costs 15 times the average yearly UK salary of £26,500 ($44,111).
The freehold is described by estate agent Hobart Slater as a “large secure underground parking space ideally situated for an Albert Court or Albert Hall Mansions resident”. The Telegraph calculated that for the same amount of money, a motorist could afford to park a car in a nearby NCP car park for 31 years, at a cost of £35.10 a day.
It’s worth noting that a similar space in the same car park went on sale just 10 months ago for “only” £275,000 ($457,300). This means that over the course of 10 months, the price tag for a space in the exclusive underground lot has rised by 31 percent, or £125,000 ($208,075).
The average property in the area sells for £2.3million ($3.8 million).
By Dan Mihalascu
PHOTO GALLERY
