For Just $45,000, You Could Own This Vancouver Parking Space

We all knew Vancouver was expensive, but this is taking it to another level.

Living in Vancouver can be pricey.

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Vancouver is the second-most expensive city in the world for home prices, behind only Hong Kong. The average price of a single detached home in Greater Vancouver reached a record-high $1,442,296 in June, according to the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver.

And renting isn't much cheaper.

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Almost half the city's residents spend more than 30% of their budget on housing, which is the generally recommended amount.

No wonder then that parking is also becoming a luxury.

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This week someone in the city's upscale Yaletown neighbourhood put their parking space up for sale. Asking price: $45,000.

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According to Richard Collins, general manager of Prompton Real Estate, which is arranging the sale, that's actually a pretty great deal. He told CBC News it's not unusual for parking stalls in Vancouver to sell for up to $50,000, with really luxurious spots going for as much as $120,000.

"I just think that it's taken people by surprise that there is actually a market for parking stalls," Collins told CBC News.

(Note: There are no bedrooms or bathrooms included with this parking space.)

Parking spaces are a hot commodity in other cities, too.

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A look at Craigslist shows parking spots in Toronto renting for between $100 and $200 a month in certain parts of town.

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In 2014 a luxury apartment building in New York offered 10 parking spots to tenants for an extra $1 million, costing more per square foot than the ritzy SoHo apartments themselves.

And earlier this year the U.K.'s "most expensive parking space" was sold for £400,000. The spot, located in London's Kensington area, went for about 2.5 times the national average home price.

Things are getting better though.

Although parking can be expensive and frustrating in many cities, millennials generally drive less than older generations, because they have less money or simply don't like cars as much as their forebears (or both).

Even in Vancouver, the demand for parking has dropped as more snake people decide they don't need their parking spaces, preferring to walk, bike or take public transit instead.

"The millennials who are buying in Vancouver don't want parking," Richard Collins, the real estate agent, told CBC News. "They don't need a car."

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