HONG KONG (BLOOMBERG) - If anyone needed further evidence of Hong Kong's sky-high real estate prices, they found it this week with news that a car parking space sold for almost US$1 million (S$1.36 million).

The space went for HK$7.6 million (S$1.32 million), making it the most expensive place to park an automobile in the city, and perhaps anywhere in the world.

The seller was Mr Johnny Cheung Shun Yee, a businessman with a reputation for flipping property.

He made around HK$900 million last year in about nine months by buying and selling floors in an office building.

The parking space is actually in the same building - The Centre in Central, which also happens to be the priciest office tower in the world. For the cost of the parking space, you could buy a one-bedroom apartment in Manhattan.

"A lot of those owners in The Centre are in finance or in other high-growth businesses," said Mr Stanley Poon, a managing director at Centaline Commercial.

"To these tycoons, it's not a significant purchase if you compare it to the value of the office floors they own."

The jaw-dropping price is also another illustration of the gap in Hong Kong between the ultra rich and ordinary people.

That income inequality has fuelled violent protests that have rocked the city for months now and show no sign of stopping.

Hong Kong's Gini coefficient was the most for any developed economy in 2016, at a 45-year high, and for all the luxury and glamour, one in five residents live below the poverty line.