HONG KONG • 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 more than HK$7.5 million (S$1.3 million).

The space went for HK$7.6 million, making it the most expensive place to park a car 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 spot is actually in that 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 with 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 which have rocked the city for months now, and show no sign of stopping.

Hong Kong's Gini coefficient - a measure of economic inequality - was the highest for any developed economy in 2016, and one in five residents lives below the poverty line.

BLOOMBERG