Thailand Business Directory

Developers and buyers all want to know the impact on the property market of the 197-kilometre mass transit lines under construction in Bangkok.

These new infrastructure developments, in addition to the 110km of existing mass transit lines, will improve access to and from inner city areas and link midtown areas.

This will affect the property market, especially the residential market. The popularity of each line can be seen from its ridership, as well as the number and prices of residential units along the line. These factors show not all lines are equal.

Currently, the BTS Light Green Line, with 750,000 passengers per day, has seen the most developments of residential, office, retail, and hotel properties.

It is followed by the MRT Blue Line, with 350,000 passengers per day, where developments have been concentrated along Ratchadaphisek road.

For the MRT Purple Line, many condominiums were launched during its construction with high expectat…

The infiltration of blockchain, the technology that supports cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, into industries around the world is only a matter of time.

The historically traditional commercial real estate industry won’t easily escape. In its simplest form, blockchain is a distributed database.

By recording and combining transactions into a de-centralized, secure ledger system, it creates a “chain” of chronological data that no one party has control of.

The value lies in the system’s ability to authenticate and track transactions in real time without the use of a third party, such as a bank. The technology has the potential to transform the property business. The potential shake-up would significantly speed up transactions and increase transparency.

“People are brainstorming new ways of using it so that they fall on the right side of this business disruption,” according to the DBRS research report How Blockchain Technology Is Rebuilding the Commerci…

Placemaking is based on a simple principle: if you plan cities for cars and traffic, you will get cars and traffic. If you plan for people and places, you will get people and places:  Southeast Asia, not the least Bangkok, is playing catch-up.

In a recent report, CBRE says sluggish retail sales and flat rental growth are contributing factors. Elsewhere, e-commerce—although in its infancy—is drawing millennial shoppers online. Coupled with the fact that consumers in Thailand have become more sophisticated and demanding, the traditional “bricks and mortar” shopping malls will remain stretched.

These factors have made ‘Placemaking’—like ‘Retailtainment’—a frequently-discussed topic and hot trend in the retail industry in Thailand, despite floating definitions.

Placemaking is about creating an environment that people choose or prefer to visit, and return to by incorporating and integrating several potential elements into a mall.

Thai retailers have b…