Closure of Taksin BTS station sends limited impact on land prices
Impacts on land prices near Taksin BTS Station would be limited should the station is closed and replaced by a new one on Thonburi side, said Jones Lang LaSalle.
Dan Tantisunthorn, head of research, said that the station, which has never been intended to be permanent, has benefited a few number of development projects in the nearby areas. These projects will definitely be hit, as they will no longer enjoy the convenient access to the BTS system and will consequently lose competitiveness.
"Within a radius of 800 meters of the BTS Saphan Taksin Station, which remains an acceptable walking distance, there are 3 office buildings, 3 hotels, 1 shopping center and 1 serviced apartment. Most of these developments will inevitably lose their competitiveness following the closure of the station," he said.
These projects are on the Phranakorn 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 center, Robinson Bangrak, may be less impacted as it was originally developed to mainly support the high density residential community within the area, although clearly some traffic is attributable to commuters passing the center on the way to the station.
Bangkok Metropolitan Administration announced on May 17 that the station may be closed to eliminate the current rail bottleneck problem. It plans a moving sidewalk with walkalators to the next closest station at Surasak.
Dan noted that the impacts on land price is unclear, as surrounding the Taksin Station are nearly old shophouses and limited land for new development projects. This shows why there are very few new projects around the station in the past years, he said.
He added that there are many property developments that are not located within a walking distance to the BTS Saphan Taksin station, but have taken advantage of the station by providing a shuttle boat service. These include condominium developments, hotels and retail centers located along both sides of the river.
The developments on the Thonburi side of the river may easily solve the issue by switching from the shuttle boat service to the Saphan Taksin Station to a shuttle bus service to the new Krungthonburi station.
The consultant firm foresees that the developments located along the Phranakorn side of the river may face a more challenging situation because a shuttle bus may not be a solution due to heavy traffic congestion from the Bangrak area to the nearest Surasak BTS Station.
