The £100,000 parking space

Parking spaces are being put on the market in London for £100,000.

Buyers are apparently more than willing to meet the hefty price in exchange for the convenience and security of a guaranteed space.

In other parts of the capital desperate motorists, who are not lucky enough to have a garage or drive attached to their homes, are buying bays as on-street parking becomes more difficult and expensive.

The £100,000 parking bay - believed to be the most expensive ever sold in the capital - is in a development in Basil Street, Knightsbridge.

There are only 12 spaces available, of which three are up at £100,000 each, and five are for rent at £5,000 a-year. The others have all been sold or rented.

The bays are the same price as a three-bedroom semi in Hull or a stone cottage in Camelford, Cornwall. Even in London, £100,000 buys a two-bedroom flat above shops in Tottenham.

"One woman bought a parking bay for her three-year-old son so he will have the space when he is old enough to have a car," said a spokesman for Harrods Estates, marketing the parking spaces.

"A vintage-car collector from one of the Gulf emirates bought five bays for his vehicles, which he previously kept in the South of France. Over 80 per cent of buyers are Middle Eastern or Asian, with pied-à-terres in Knightsbridge."

Forty-four out of 56 bays in the purpose-built complex in Knightsbridge - a few minutes from Harrods - have been snapped up.

The demand for parking is just as great across central London. Agent Peter Wetherell said: "There are two things guaranteed to rise in value, Havana Cigars and parking places in Mayfair. In South Audley Street, single parking spaces are being rented for £5,000 a year, giving them a freehold value of over £100,000.

"We are selling brand new flats at 68 North Row, Park Lane, from £750,000. The underground parking spaces cost an additional £50,000 per space."

Estate agents report a brisk trade. Jonathan Hewlett, of the Sloane Street branch of FPD Savills, who is selling spaces in Pembridge Villa for £40,000 apiece, said: "People are increasingly prepared to pay these prices for the convenience and security that the space will bring to them.

"They are mostly very busy people working long hours and the last thing they need is the hassle of finding a parking space.

"It is convenient, it will always be there for them, and it is secure for both the owner and the car. And it is a very good investment."