City housingboom along masstransit lines

Developers following the Purple line, from Bang Sue to Bang Yai, are working on new residential projects with a combined 5,623 units worth more than Bt25 billion.

The Blue Line route from Bang Sue to Tha Pra is also popular with developers, who have launched proj¬ects this year with a combined 4,451 units. The other Blue Line route, from Hualampong to Bang Kae, has attracted residential projects with 1,597 units this year. Projects offer¬ing 180 units were started on this route last year, bringing the total now launched or under construction to 1,777 units.

Samma said that nearly 60 per cent of the projects clustered around the four rapidtransit routes were now sold out. The rest are awaiting buyers while under construction.

Meanwhile, property developers are planning even more residential projects along the four routes, espe¬cially condominiums. Twentyseven new projects, offering 9,000 units, are expected to be launched before the end if this year, or early in 2009. They will have a combined value of about Bt45 million.

With the rapidly growing supply of residential projects clustered around the four new masstransit routes as well as the Skytrain and sub¬way systems, Samma warned that the market could soon face an oversup¬ply because demand was falling.

"Homebuyers are now concerned that their future earnings may drop, and they are reducing their budgets accordingly. At the same time, com¬mercial banks are becoming strict about their provision of mortgages. These two factors are combining to reduce demand on the residential market," he said.

He said customer demand was focused on detached houses priced from Bt5 million to Bt10 million.

In earlier research, the Agency for Real Estate Affairs found that resi¬dential projects launched along the Bang Sue to Bang Yai route in the first half of this year, including condo¬miniums, townhouses, double hous¬es and detached houses, were togeth¬er worth about Bt100 billion.

SC Asset has launched projects in the area with a value of Bt3 billion.

Land prices in the area from Sathorn Road to the Ratchaphruek Ring Road increased from between Bt6 million and Bt8 million per rai in 2004 to between Bt10 million and Bt12 million last year.

From the Ratchaphruek Ring Road through Rama V Road to Rattanathibet Road, land prices rose from Bt5 million per rai in 2004 to between Bt6 million and Bt7 million last year.

Meanwhile, on the 20kilometre stretch from Sathorn Road through Ratchaphruek and the Rama V Bridge to Rattanathibet Road, 50 new single detachedhousing proj¬ects were launched last year and in the first two months of this year, with 300 units worth nearly Bt4 billion ready for occupation.

Kree said demand for detached housing in this location was in the upper segment of the market.