High demand and low supply have resulted in astronomical costs for parking spaces in Hanoi, some of which exceed the cost of the cars themselves.

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While one can find pricy parking spaces across the capital, the home of the city’s most expensive may belong to the Golden Westlake apartment building on Hoang Hoa Tham Road where prices range from several hundred million VND to nearly VND1 billion (US$50,000). According to Vietnam Net, at this rate, the cost of a 10 square meter space matches that of an apartment in the building.

Golden Westlake may be the most costly, but it is far from an outlier.

One resident living in the city’s Hei Tower told the newspaper that she paid US$15,000 for their parking space back in 2013.

"More than VND300 million is a large amount of money but we had to pay for the parking site; otherwise I don’t know where to park my car," she said.

Things were no better at an apartment building at 93 Lo Duc where a tenant complained that they shelled out VND552,575,000 ($25,000) for the privilege of parking their vehicle.

Like Saigon, Hanoi has long has had plans to construct more parking lots to accommodate the growing number of cars on the city’s streets. While the authorities have been in discussions with the UAE-based fund Vault Investment Foundation (Vault) to set up a set of smart car parks, they are still in the planning stage.

According to Pham Hoang Tuan, department deputy director of the Hanoi Transport Department, the two current smart parking lots and one being developed could only meet 10% - 15% of demand.

Perhaps these expensive parking spaces are one of the reasons Hanoi residents were recently found to have the highest living expenses in the country.

[Photo via Can Ho Saigon]