It’s always nice to find a free parking space, but the reality is that most of the time we have to dip our hand in our pocket and pay to leave our vehicle in a safe place. This week we’re going to give you a little bit of perspective on the cost of parking, by showing you some of the most expensive car parks, parking spaces and personal extravagances in the world. We’re already one of the cheapest car parks in Leeds, but compared to these, our fees really are a real bargain!
If this guy thinks his parking is expensive, he should try some of these parking spaces!
CXL Trimaran Concept
What do you do when you’ve got a spare £1,000,000,000 in your kitchen drawer, a McLaren MP4-12C parked on the drive and burning desire to test out your sea legs? You ask luxury yacht builders, Ultraluxum, to construct a 160-foot concept trimaran with a built-in docking car park for your McLaren, that’s what!
The largest yacht of its kind to feature folding hull beams, this 90-tonne beast may well be the most expensive and high-tech portable car park ever constructed for use on the Earth. Why folding hull beams? Well, with a fully extended width of 75 feet, many harbours would be unable to accommodate this gigantic yacht without this hi-tech feature. We don’t know about that as it’s far from our area of expertise, but it certainly is cool!
GM building – New York City
Located in the prime real estate area of the city, the GM building is a place for hotshot executives to throw their money around. It’s not uncommon for these high-flyers to pay $66 a day for their spot, which works out at $1320 a month, or £15,840 per year – lucky that their pay checks can cover it!
Single parking spot – Tokyo
Another urban metropolis where real estate is at a premium is Tokyo – one of the most densely populated cities in the world. Jacinto Tong, CEO of the property firm Gale Well Group, once splashed out $640,000 on a single 16’ by 8’ parking space. As a consequence of being so made up with the idea of walking a mere 20 steps to his office, he spent further fortunes on several other spots around the city. Maybe someone should tell him about taxis!
Hamilton Parks – Singapore
If the CXL Trimaran is the most expensive floating parking space in the world, the penthouse in the Hamilton Parks high rise apartment has to be the top of the pile on dry land. The apartment may cost a staggering $24 million, but it does come with an elevator all the way up the building for the supercars of your choice – two of them, actually!
So next time you complain about the cost of parking, think back to this post and breathe a sigh of relief that you’ve not ended up in a position where you have more money than sense – or if you’re in Leeds, part at Trafalgar Street, safe in the knowledge that you’ve found one of the cheapest parking spots in the city!