$1m for parking space!

Hong Kong might be heading for recession after months of violent protests but that hasn’t stopped one businessman from forking out almost $1 million for a parking spot. The mind-boggling sum paid by Johnny Cheung Shun-yee highlights the gaping inequality that has helped fuel nearly five months of demonstrations in the financial hub, where one in five people live below the poverty line. The HK$7.6 million ($970,000) price tag is more than 30 times the average annual wage in Hong Kong and about the same as a one-bed apartment in London’s plush Chelsea area. It is situated in The Centre, the city’s fifth-highest skyscraper, which hit the headlines in October 2017 when it became the world’s most expensive office building after Hong Kong’s richest man sold it for more than $5 billion.