£200k for a parking space?! (Almost)

How far would you go to secure a parking space for your house?

In the affluent neighbourhood of South Kensington, a narrow lane behind a row of houses has sold for £200,000.

Why? Because you can park a car on it (you can’t build on it or anything like that, mind).

Wetherby Lane is an 80m strip of land that acts as a public pathway between Rosary Gardens and Hereford Square. Despite it being a pathway, the lane has space wide enough at one end to park a car – just so long as you own it.

And it’s this feature that has prompted a bidding war leading to the lane selling for £202,000 within three months of being on the market.

London estate agents, Colliers, which oversaw the sale, has admitted to it being “a bit ridiculous”. Speaking to the London Evening Standard, their head of residential development Annabel Haan said the new owner had “paid quite a lot of money for what is essentially an extra car parking space”.

But she admitted that the value it would bring to the owner’s property could make it worthwhile.

“If you can afford to purchase a piece of land directly behind your land that you can control and park your car on, you’re just adding to the value of your property,” she told the Standard.

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