China Daily reports that parking provision has failed to keep pace with the explosion in car ownership, driving prices for parking spaces to surreal heights:
The price for a parking space has hit a record 400,000 yuan ($61,963) in Xi’an, where the average price of a new home is 5,398 yuan per square meter. Even the average price of a parking space in Xi’an, 170,000 yuan, is 31 times greater than the average square-meter price for residences, by far the biggest differential of seven cities surveyed.
“It’s about time the sale of parking spaces was regulated,” said Zhang Jigang, director of property market supervision in Northwest China’s Shaanxi province. “Some developers have been making excessive profits and this has affected social stability ….”
The situation is worse in big cities such as Beijing and Guangzhou. In some high-end communities in Beijing, the cost to own a parking spot has reached 800,000 yuan ….
More than 23,000 parking spaces were created in Beijing in 2010 – but 700,000 new cars hit the road there.
Shanghaiist lists a number of other factors conspiring to turn car ownership in China into a profoundly mixed blessing.
