Unsurprisingly, on both sides of the road lie a number of properties by Thai and foreign companies who could afford the pricey land which is estimated to be worth more than Bt60,000 per square wah.

Among the foreign properties that make their presence felt are the Sukhothai Hotel of Hong Kong-based HKRI, which is on South Sathorn Road, and the Evergreen Hotel of a Taiwanese investor. Aside from several embassies that flank the road are banks like the Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi, and there is also the French language school Alliance Francaise.

But none of this can outpace the investment from Singapore, which is concentrated mainly on South Sathorn.

A survey has showed that on the road stand a number of structures of companies that are either Thai-Singapore joint ventures or Thai companies with Singaporean interests. The number is so high that some people in property circles call the stretch "Singapore Road".

From the junction of Rama IV and Sathorn Road, the 38-storey grade-A office building Q House Lumpini is located on the left-hand side. Not far away is Q House Sathorn, located next to Soi Atthakan Prasit. This is also a first-class office building, with 20 floors.

The two buildings are developed and operated by the listed Quality Houses Plc, the country's leading property developer of luxury residential and office-building projects. Apart from Land & Houses Plc, the firm's second-largest shareholder is the Government of Singapore Investment Corp (GIC) with a 13-per-cent stake as of October 2005.

The next building is the British hotel-chain-managed Metropolitan Hotel, developed by a Thai-Singapore joint venture. The hotel consists of 171 rooms.

Before reaching Soi Suan Plu, one comes across a five-star hotel called the Banyan Tree, developed and managed by Singaporean-based Banyan Tree Holdings. Over the years the Banyan Tree group has poured billions of baht to add to its properties in the Kingdom.

Off South Sathorn Road and Soi Suan Plu, there is the 239-apartment serviced block Somerset Park Suanplu. The building is operated by the Ascott Group, which is part of CapitaLand, a property arm of Singapore's Temasek Holdings.

The Singapore Embassy is also located at the corner of Suan Plu Road.

The Met, a 66-floor luxury condominium, will also be a major feature on South Sathorn. The condo, which is under construction and expected to be complete by 2007, is developed by Pebble Bay (Thailand), a member of the Singaporean-based HPL Group.

Situated behind the Empire Tower alongside Narathiwat Soi 4 will be the 43-storey condominium Empire Place. Developed by TCC Capital Land, this is a joint venture between liquor tycoon Charoen Sirivadhanabhakdi's TCC Land and Singapore's CapitaLand.

The luxury serviced-apartment building Ascott Sathorn Bangkok is located next to Empire Tower.

Then you have United Overseas Bank (Thai). Singapore's United Overseas Bank spent Bt6.5 billion to acquire Radanasin Bank's shares in October 1999. Last year it injected about Bt22 billion to buy out Bank of Asia and merged it with UOB Radanasin, and is currently represented in Thailand by United Overseas Bank (Thai).

And it's not just investors from Singapore who have developed properties in the South Sathorn area, as other international groups have shown interest in the area, said Dr Sopon Pornchokchai, managing director of the Agency for Real Estate Affairs.

He said the area offered high potential for making a handsome return on one's investment.

Piya Treruangrachada, financial controller of Keppel Thai Properties Plc, which is seeking a plot to build a middle-upper condominium in the Sathorn area, said the area had high potential to become a new financial district of Bangkok - an extension from the nearby Silom area. About 45 per cent of Keppel Thai Properties is owned by Keppel Land, the property arm of Singapore's multinational Keppel Group.

"The Sathorn area is also attractive to financial-related firms, including lawyers, auditors, large enterprises, as well as residential buildings," said Piya.

He added that Sathorn Road would soon be like Singapore's Orchard Road and New York's Wall Street, where office buildings and financial institutions are concentrated in great numbers.

Supporting this is research by local developer Raimon Land. Since 2004, 16 condominium projects comprising 2,756 units have been launched in the Silom and Sathorn areas. That is a huge number, but still worth the investment.

In 2005, the average price for a condo in inner-city Bangkok was Bt80,774 per square metre. The biggest price hike was in the Silom and Sathorn areas, where the current price/sqm of available units has reached Bt97,284.

Office buildings also enjoy near-full occupancy rates as local and multinational companies demand space for the convenience of clients.

"It just happened that Singapore was the first to see the road's potential," said a source in property circles, explaining why the overall Singaporean investment is larger than that of other foreign companies.

Reflecting this comment is the fact that Singapore's GIC was among the first foreign investors to resume investment in Thailand right after the 1997 financial crisis, when most foreigners still shunned the Kingdom.

Sasithorn Ongdee

The Nation