The ten most expensive places to park in the world

If you're a London driver here's one more reason to leave your car at home: our very own capital is the most expensive city to park, eclipsing even Tokyo and New York. The following ten cities offer the priciest spaces in the world:

1. London City, monthly average: £749.79

London’s most expensive car park is Pavilion Road multi-storey in Knightsbridge, a short hop from Harrods. It will set you back £43.20 for a six hour stay. Berners St car park in Bloomsbury has the highest hourly fee at £8. If you fancy a stay at the Park Lane Hilton factor in the cost for your car - two hours parking costs £12.

2. London, West End, monthly average: £729.71

If you are fortunate enough to find a space in Soho, Oxford Street or near Leicester Square you might live to regret it. Trafalgar Square car park charges £6 an hour, and it will cost you at least £25 to park in most West End car parks for a morning’s shopping.

3. Sydney, monthly average: £497.80

Camper vans at Bondi Beach aren’t for hippies anymore- it is the most expensive beach to park at in Oz costing you $30 for a few hours. Corporate trusts own Sydney’s main car parking areas and earlier this year the Sydney Opera House car park, which has 1,176 spaces, was valued at $120million (£51.5 million).

4. Hong Kong, monthly average: £477.17

Last year a penthouse apartment in central Hong Kong sold for $23.65million USD (about £15million), more extraordinary were the value of the car parking spaces included in the cost- $153,000 each (just over £100,000).

5. Brisbane, monthly average: £380.23

Despite an attempt to promote public transport in Queensland’s largest city, most Brisbane residents travel by car. Brisbane’s population growth has put the city under particular pressure and parking has shot up to match demand.

6. New York, monthly average: £375.97

Americans have a reputation for being dedicated to their cars, but you’d have to have a particularly strong sense of loyalty to want one in Manhattan, where a parking space can fetch up to $255,000 (£167,000). There is an increasing real estate trend in New York to buy up parking spaces as an investment even if you don’t have a car. Parking spaces can fetch the same price per square foot as actual living space.

7. Tokyo, monthly average: £354.80

Finding somewhere to keep your vehicle is so rare in Tokyo that the Japanese have created a law to ensure there isn’t a run on car parks. You must prove you own a parking space before you can buy a car, unless the car is less than 3.4 metres (11ft 2in) long and powered by an engine no larger than 660cc.

8. Perth, monthly average: £331.99

West Australia’s main city has a free transit zone area offering public transport at no cost, in an attempt to cut down on vehicles in the city after the government discovered 80 per cent of journeys were being taken by private car.

9. Stockholm, monthly average: £327.12

Nothing comes cheap in the environmentally friendly Swedish capital, and places to park your polluting vehicle are no exception. Like London, Swedish drivers passing through the centre of Stockholm are charged a congestion fee, and the government have created a slick public transport system to encourage people to keep their cars at home.

10. Dublin, monthly average: £326.44

Office rents in Dublin are some of the highest in Europe so it isn’t surprising that car parking slots fetch a fortune too. Off street spaces in new developments in the Irish capital’s city centre can add tens of thousands of pounds on to the price of a property.

By Laura Whateley

Source: Colliers International. Picture courtesy of: Read Red Reed Reeds

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Comments

[Mark, Japan]

The "Average" figure quoted for Tokyo deceptively must include greater Tokyo as within the Yamanote Line (central Tokyo) the average price is around Yen 60/65,000 which is in the region of GBP500 for an apartment building parking space.

[Paul]

Diana, should children really be encouraged to play in the street? Parks and gardens are a better alternative.

[Beatrice]

Oh well, do I care about the price of car parking? No, I just got made redundant and had to sell my sports car.

[B J Deller]

Oh dear Gaia, with no cars just think of the MILLIONS who would have no job at all, and Clobal warming is a normal, natural solar event, it is not being caused by cars, etc.

How do you get to work? Walk or cycle? Or take a bus or train? The latter two in your eyes are just as bad as cars and motorcycles.

[Paul]

Gaia, Relax a bit. The Earth will be the same ball of rock no mater what we do. Its just that perhaps we won't live on it anymore.

One way to bring down the cost of a space.

[Gaia]

ANYONE who chooses to drive chooses to kill the Earth - and Man-and-womankind. Shame on you. FOR SHAME.

[Don]

Is Knightsbridge in the City?

[Paul T]

Yes Diana, we can do without cars. Going further, do we really need extra bedrooms, central heating in every room, more clothes than you can fit in one wash - all in the same colour of course. Come to think of it why not all each stew and porridge, drink water, exercise daily get rid of televisions. Hell, lets go back to a pre-industrial agrarian society. Bring back feudalism I say. Lets go right back to when things were much better (that would probably be before humans came about). Great plan.

[Frank Upton]

Hour for hour, some NHS hospital car parks are among the most expensive anywhere, rather than being free at the point of delivery.

[Diana]

Parking should be expensive - car parks are eyesores, people should be discouraged from driving and, in residential areas, parked cars stop children playing on the street, make it difficult to cross the road and spoil the look of many a pleasant road.

[Bob]

When you take into account the cost of parking tickets in London, it is even more expensive in reality...

[Chris]

Not quite in the same league but my annual residents' parking permit (to allow me to park in the street) was £80 last year and is £225 this year. Not all the streets in my area are permit parking so some local residents can park for free and if you have your own driveway then, again, it's free.

That's the Liberal Democrats for you. Let's hope they get elected on a national level so we can perhaps look forward to a random income tax policy where some pay 90% and others pay nothing!

[vruti patel]

I am also fortunate as i can not afford a car

[Tom Smith]

In ther early 50s I used to live just around the corner from Harrods at 39 Hans Place. As a four year old little boy, my friends and I once 'helped,'well tried to help, someone park their car against the park railings opposite where I lived.
The driver gave me 3d! I rushed across the road to tell my Mum. The old chap who hung around and usually helped the drivers back up wasn't too pleased and claimed the money was for him. So the cost of parking near Harrods has gone up a bit since 1951!

[Matthew Masters]

S Padmanabhan, you can say that again!

[Nicholas Reuss]

Your conversion rates from $ to GBP indicate USD but if the $ prices are in fact HKD then sterling equivalents would be GBP2m and GBP13,200 respectively.

[Billy]

I suggest someone does a little more research on exchange rates with the pound and Hong Kong Dollar. 15m GBP is $174m HKD currently.....not even close.

[Stacey Kelly]

The appearance of three Australian cities on the list surprised me.

Next time when I'm cursing the cost of parking at Queen Street (in Brisbane) I can rest assured that it's not just me that thinks it's extortionate.

Third world city with parking more expensive than New York.

[Anthony Eskinazi]

You can though find cheaper parking alternatives on the web through online parking space marketplaces such as ParkatmyHouse.com

[Car Insurance Agent]

What an interesting list! I can't believe some of these figures! It makes me grateful for the more down-to-earth prices I pay here.

[Karla]

One more reason to live in the desert... cheap or no parking fees. You do have to drive nearly everywhere since public transport is still limited. Downtown parking lots/garages are super cheap... here are rates for airport parking. Most Hotels, shopping areas are have huge free parking lots.
Fast Track Airport Parking - Sky Harbor in Phoenix AZ US
Covered Self Park: $10.00/Daily
Covered Valet: $12.00/Daily
Outdoor Self Park: $8.00/Daily
Outdoor Valet: $10.00/Daily

[S Padmanabhan]

I am really surprised. I think I am fortunate that I am an Indian. And, I am also fortunate not to own a car

[S Padmanabhan]

It is really unbelievable. I am fotrunate to be an Indian. I don't have such problems. More so, because, I don't even have a car.

[John Stephens]

Harrods is I believe in Knightsbridge but it is NOT London City.

[Tina]

Why does 1. refer to London City, monthly average: £749.79 when all of the places quoted are in the West End and then have 2. as London West End? Not proofread!