On Manhattan Street, in the heart of New York City, the bustling sound of footsteps fills the air from morning until late at night. The financial activity on this prime location is beyond estimation. If you've ever watched the immensely popular series Gossip Girl, you can imagine the vibrancy and luxury of life on the Upper East Side.

Beneath the surface lies immense value.

The skyrocketing land prices in the heart of Bangkok can be intimidating, but they pale in comparison to the land prices in prime locations in Manhattan, which reach as high as $1,800 per square foot or approximately 656,620 baht per square meter! If you want to own a mansion or condominium, you would need at least $1.13 million or 38.29 million baht!

What has led Manhattan to reach such soaring real estate prices?

In short, it’s the completeness of the location. Manhattan boasts Central Park, Times Square, the Empire State Building, universities, schools, hospitals, cinemas, galleries, zoos, museums, and countless other attractions that cannot all be mentioned in one paragraph.

The relationship of being a prime location is similar: it has places that cater to essential human behaviors and are easily accessible. Why are land prices in the CBD, considered prime locations, higher than in other areas? This is because there are large job centers where most people spend their time. If the environment in that location is better than the job centers, it further enhances its potential. For example, Wireless Road is a prime location for high-quality residences, luxury hotels, shopping centers, and is not far from Lumpini Park, similar to the upscale Upper East Side of Manhattan adjacent to Central Park.

Walkable neighborhoods enhance location value.

Bangkok's business districts, including Silom, Sathorn, Siam, Rama 9, Sukhumvit, Asoke, and even Ari, share a crucial factor: they are accessible by public transport and are walkable. Have you ever wondered why areas like Vibhavadi Road, with many high-rise office buildings, do not stand out compared to others, even though they are also job centers and cannot reach the status of a CBD?

The reason is that Vibhavadi Road does not support walkability. Even if a subway line passes through in the future, it won't be walkable like our current CBD. This is because Vibhavadi is primarily a road for vehicles. Imagine placing 20 high-rise office buildings from Silom along Vibhavadi Road, which lacks sidewalks, and picture where thousands of employees would go for lunch. Would they want to go out if they had to drive?

Walking can reduce the limitations of retail spaces.

To emphasize that our concept holds weight, TerraBKK Research refers to a study by Boarnet, Greenwald, and McMillan (2008) on transforming neighborhoods into Walkable areas. The results clearly indicate that it can enhance economic value in various aspects, such as creating retail spaces, increasing job concentration, reducing travel costs, increasing location value, and shortening travel times, which collectively can yield benefits of over $131 million.

Image credit: http://www.vtpi.org

One clear economic value increase from the study by Sztabinski (2009), which tested replacing parking spaces with bike lanes, is that 90% of pedestrians, cyclists, or public transport users tend to visit stores and spend more than those who drive. Additionally, small shops do not need to prepare parking spaces for customers because they can walk in easily, making them more accessible and frequented.

Assessing locations based on walkability scores (Goodwalk Score)

walkscore.com is a website that rates locations based on walkability. Major neighborhoods worldwide, including Manhattan itself, have walk scores as high as 99. The importance of walk scores is growing in these large cities, influencing property searches and purchasing decisions, as most people want to minimize travel costs in their daily activities.

Image credit: http://www.walkscore.com

In Bangkok, there is a similar website called goodwalk, which provides walkability scores for different locations. We compared Vibhavadi Road with Rama 9 (New CBD) and found that the Goodwalk Score for Rama 9 is higher than that of Vibhavadi. Other locations like Siam, Sukhumvit, Silom, Sathorn, and even Ari also have high scores.

Even if the subway system expands throughout the city in the future, choosing locations based solely on subway stations is not the ultimate answer. If you have to spend a significant amount on subway fares daily to get to work, and then take a motorcycle taxi afterward, that is certainly not the best option - Terra BKK.

Article by: TerraBKK Knowledge Base

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