Moving To Airportville? Don’t Forget Your Wellies

[george]

Moving to Airportville? Don’t forget your wellies

BANGKOK: -- Areas at risk from flooding due to construction at the Suvarnabhumi Airport include Samut Prakan, the districts of Min Buri, Nong Chok and Lat Krabang, and Suwinthawong Road, according to Property Perfect Plc’s assistant managing director Teerachon Manomaiphibul.

Many development firms are expanding investments in new residential projects near Suvarnabhumi because they believe the airport will create a new community and economic area, in line with the government policy to construct mass-transit and road linkages to the central business district.

New projects near the airport include Rattanabadee Land Co’s Suvarnabhumi Logistics Centre, which spans 45.6 hectares adjacent to the Bang Na-Trat Highway. There is also Krisda Mahanakorn’s Suvarnabhumi Centre, with a hotel, shopping complex, convention centre and medium- to high-bracket detached housing units covering an area of 640 hectares, also on the Bang Na-Trat Highway.

But the new airport’s site of Nong Ngu Hao (“Cobra Swamp”) is a low-lying area that has been prone to flooding for a long time. New construction in the area has redirected the course of potential flooding towards nearby locations currently being developed.

Teerachon said people who planned to buy new houses close by should be concerned about flooding. He recommended that prospective buyers evaluate flood-prevention systems at each project before deciding to buy.

Home-buyers should also, especially to the north and south of the new airport, consider potential noise impact. Areas likely to be affected include Bang Na and the Ring-Road near Onnuj.

Teerachon said that the prime areas for home-buyers would be Srinakarin, Ramkhamhaeng, Kin Kaw and Onnuj.

Suphin Mechuchep, managing director of Jones Lang LaSalle (Thailand), said Pattaya would also be a prime location for investors who wanted to capitalise on the new airport because there would be no negative impact from noise or flooding

--The Nation 2005-09-26