A parking lot at The Center, a 73-storey office tower in Hong Kong, was recently sold for HK$7.6 million (around S$1.3 million).

This makes it the world's most expensive place to park a car, according to South China Morning Post.

The office tower also holds the world record as the costliest commercial building ever sold, when it was sold for HK$40.2 billion (around S$7 billion) in 2017.

More than three times Hong Kong's median home price

The parking space is currently vacant, pending the completion of its sale.

It is located on the top of The Center's three-level basement, and is reserved as executive parking for tenants only.

The parking space's transacted price is equivalent to HK56,505 (around S$9,800) per sq ft, which is more than three times Hong Kong's median home price.

Hong Kong is known for having the least affordable housing in the world, with a median home costing 20 times the gross annual median income in 2018.

Prices of car parks outstrip the prices of houses

Parking spaces have become both a status symbol and a lucrative investment opportunity in Hong Kong, as car park prices in the city outstrip that of the housing market.

In 2017, it was reported that Hong Kong parking spaces have outperformed home prices over a 12 year period, due to shrinking supply and strong investment interest.

The Center also has only 402 parking spaces in a building serving 1.2 million sq ft of office space, which further drives prices up.

The average price of each parking space in the building costs around HK$6 million (around S$1.04 million).

Car park prices highlight the wealth gap

The sale price of these car park spaces highlight the growing income inequality in Hong Kong, where nearly one in five residents lived below the poverty line in 2017, according to SCMP.

Rising cost of living and increasingly unaffordable homes have also been blamed for the ongoing protests in Hong Kong, with the city's prolific billionaires singled out as "the problem".

However, it would seem that despite the unrest, the sky-high prices for parking spaces will not come to an end anytime soon.

"Good times or bad times, there are still ultra-rich people paying whatever needed to get what they like," said James Mak, Midland Commercial's district sales director to SCMP.

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Top image from HKFP.