Above: Bangkok’s traffic is notorious, meaning property prices with good access links are automatically higher.

Bangkok will open the new Purple Line tomorrow from Bang Yai to Tao Pun, in the first of the mass transit lines planned to be opened every year in the Thai capital from 2016 through 2020.

This development comes as the Thai government is studying the feasibility of 10 more lines throughout the Greater Bangkok area, in a bid to spread property growth more evenly throughout the metropolis.

“Bangkok’s central business districts will keep growing, but at a slower pace as the new mass transit lines will change the city’s landscape and boost new developments in the outskirts,” Transport Minister Arkhom Termpittayapaisith said.

Land prices increased 9.6 percent on average last year along the route from Tao Pun to Bang Yai. Meanwhile, prices along the Blue Line routes from Tha Phra to Bang Khae and Bang Sue saw prices jump 10.52 percent on average, while those along the Red Line route from Bang Sue to Taling Chan increased 1.9 percent.

A bus service will temporarily shuttle passengers between the Purple Line’s Tao Pun station to the Blue Line’s Bang Sue station. The Mass Rapid Transit Authority is still looking for contractors to build a link between the stops.

In a 2011 report, Knight Frank predicted that residential demand for condominiums in Bangkok’s suburbswill grow after mass transit lines connect the central business district to outlying ones.

Source: Property Report