Central, July 7: Prices for parking spaces are booming in Hong Kong. A single parking space in a luxury development in Kowloon’s Ho Man Tin district was recently sold for a record HK$6 million, which roughly translates to over Rs 5 crore. The price rise is being fueled by a significant increase in number of cars on Hong Kong’s roads.

The average parking space in Hong Kong goes for about HK$2.25 million, a more than sixfold increase since 2006, said a Bloomberg report. According to a report by the city’s Transport Department, the number of parking spaces grew just 9.5 percent to 743,000 from 2006 through 2016.

However, the number of cars surged 49 percent to 536,025 during those years. Stamp duty is another reason behind the rising price of parking spaces. A parking spot costing HK$2.25 million carries a stamp duty of 3 per cent, while buying house attracts taxes that can run as much as 30 percent.

One the key reasons is developers who tries to make more money building apartments than garages. Due to this, the ratio of parking spots to housing units has declined, Denis Ma, head of Hong Kong research at consulting firm Jones Lang LaSalle Inc, was quoted as saying.

While the price of parking spaces saw a more than sixfold increase since 2006, home prices increased a mere 3.4 times over the same period.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jul 07, 2018 11:54 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).