A Hong Kong number plate displaying a single letter has sold for $HK25.5 million – $4.7 million in Australian currency – but it’s still not the most expensive registration plate in the world.
A Hong Kong resident has paid $HK25.5 million ($AU4.7 million) for a number plate with the single letter ‘R’ after placing the highest bid at a government auction.
However, the eye-watering sum still falls short of the world record.
The South China Morning Post reports Hong Kong’s Transport Department held a ‘Lunar New Year’ auction on Sunday 12 February which included 49 number plates, all starting at a reserve price of $HK5000 ($AU922).
According to the news outlet, bidding for the ‘R’ number plate quickly escalated in multi-million dollar increments, attracting more than 60 bids before it reached its hammer price of $HK25.5 million ($AU4.7 million).
The converted auction result is almost double the highest recorded price paid for an Australian number plate – set in 2017 at $2.45 million – but it falls short of reaching the existing Hong Kong and world records.
In March 2021, a Hong Kong number plate with the single letter ‘W’ sold for $HK26 million ($AU4.8 million) at another government-run auction, remaining as the city’s highest price to date.
The world’s most expensive number plate was reportedly sold in 2008, with the United Arab Emirates registration ‘1’ selling for 52.2 million dirham – equivalent to almost $AU20.5 million today.
Since 2008, three other number plates have been listed online with higher price tags than the existing record, though it is understood none have sold.
In April 2018, UK-based entrepreneur Afzal Kahn put the British registration ‘F1’ up for sale, asking £14.4 million ($AU25.1 million) for the plate he purchased in 2008 for £440,000 ($AU770,000).
In March 2021, an unassuming mid-1990s Volvo V70 was listed for sale in the US with a price tag of $US20 million ($AU28.9 million) – with a bulk of the asking price attributed to its New York number plate which reads ‘New York’.
This was topped in October 2021 by the Californian number plate ‘MM’, listed online with a matching non-fungible token (NFT) for 5888 Ethereum – a cryptocurrency which was reported to be worth the equivalent of $US24.3 million ($AU35.2 million) at the time.
In Australia, the highest prices paid for a number plate varies greatly from state to state.
As previously mentioned, the national record was set in 2017 with a New South Wales ‘4’ registration plate, selling for $2.45 million.
Victoria’s record was set in May 2022, with the number plate ‘14’ selling for a hammer price of $2,270,500.
In November 2020, a South Australian number plate celebrating the 1985 Formula One Adelaide Grand Prix bearing the number ‘1’ went to auction and sold for a hammer price of $700,000.
The most expensive number plate in Queensland’s history came from the sale of ‘Q9’ in 2019, after the buyer paid $363,379 including auction fees.
The post Hong Kong number plate sells for almost $5 million appeared first on Drive.
0 Response to "Hong Kong number plate sells for almost $5 million"
Post a Comment