Station closure 'won't sink land prices'

The impact on land prices near Taksin Station will be limited should the Skytrain station be closed and replaced by a new one on the Thon Buri side, says property consultant Jones Lang LaSalle.

Dan Tantisunthorn, head of research, said the station, which was never intended to be permanent, had benefited a few development projects in nearby areas. These projects will definitely be hit, as they will no longer enjoy convenient access to the BTS Skytrain system and will consequently lose competitiveness.

“Within a radius of 800 metres of the BTS Saphan Taksin Station, which is an acceptable walking distance, there are three office buildings, three hotels, one shopping centre and one serviced apartment building. Most of these developments will inevitably lose competitiveness after the closure of the station,” he said.

These projects are on the Phra Nakhon side of the Chao Phraya River. There are only a small number of modern property developments currently benefiting from immediate access to the station. The shopping centre, Robinson Bangrak, may not feel as much impact as it was originally developed mainly to support the high-density residential community in the area, although clearly some traffic is attributable to commuters passing the centre on the way to the station.

The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration announced on May 17 that the station might be closed to eliminate a bottleneck on the Skytrain system. It plans a moving sidewalk with walkalators to the next-closest station at Surasak.

Dan said it was unclear what the impact on land prices would be, as surrounding Taksin Station are old shophouses and limited land for new development projects. This is why there have been very few new projects around the station in recent years, he said.

He added that there were many property developments that were not within walking distance of Saphan Taksin Station but had taken advantage of the station by providing a shuttle-boat service. These include condominium developments, hotels and retail centres along both sides of the river.

The developments on the Thon Buri side of the river may easily solve the issue by switch-

ing the shuttle-boat service to a shuttle-bus service to the new Krung Thonburi station.

However, the consultant firm foresees that developments along the Phra Nakhon side of the river may face a more challenging situation, as a shuttle bus may not be a solution because of heavy traffic congestion from the Bang Rak area to the nearest BTS station, Surasak.