The Land Transport Master Plan charts out the long-term vision of Singapore’s land transport system, and how it will look like in 2040 and beyond. It is an encouraging step forward to improve our future transport network. I believe it will bring a lot of time savings, convenience and thereby creating better lifestyle to residents living in Singapore.
Here is the video that gives a very good summary to the LTMP 2040.
Here, I will explore how the upcoming transport master plan may affect the prices of the properties.
A 45-Minute City with 20-Minute Towns
One of the key initiatives of the LTMP is the goal of having a 45-minute travelling time to work, and a 20-minute travelling time to reach amenities within residential towns. We can also expect new regional hubs to be developed outside the city area. That will bring jobs closer to homes. Undeniably, a good initiative as it can reduce the average time taken to travel to work, and gives commuters more time to live, work and play.
With new regional hubs outside the city, we can expect people working in those regional hubs to look for housing near their workplace. They could be buyers looking to stay near their workplace, or even tenants who wants to rent a place close to their work. It will be important here to find out what kind of industry or businesses these regional hubs be like in the future. What will be the kind of concept or theme of these future regional hubs? Will it create more potential tenants or will it bring more buyers to the properties there? Or perhaps, there will only be negligible effects on the properties there?
It will be good to look out for the kind of future developments, and the size of these regional hubs before evaluating the potential impact on the properties there.
Improving Island-Wide Rail Connectivity
The rail network will be expanded. Two new MRT stations will be opened on the North South Line (NSL) by the mid-2030:
1. Brickland Station will be added to the NSL, serving residents in areas such as Keat Hong, Bukit Batok West, Pavillion Park and the Brickland district in Tengah town.
2. The NSL will also see the addition of a new Sungei Kadut interchange station connecting to the Downtown Line (DTL) serving upcoming developments at Sungei Kadut
LTA will build the Thomson-East Coast Line (TEL) extension by around 2040 to provide a direct rail connection from Changi Airport to the city.
So, will the new station bring about an increase in the property prices?
Of course, with the new MRT stations, it will definitely create greater accessibility to the residents there, including future tenants. It should “benefit” the properties around the new MRT area.
Nonetheless, do consider the degree and bearing of a new MRT station can have on each individual area:
- Are the area around the future MRT already being well-served by current public transport system? If public transport options are already a plenty in that area, then it would not have as much as an impact.
- The amount of development and amenities that is at present there around the future MRT station (before the MRT station opening). If the area around the upcoming MRT is already well developed (the infrastructure there are fairly new) and the area is already densely populated, then the addition of the MRT station may not have a big impact.
New Integrated Transport Hubs
New Integrated Transport Hubs (ITHs) is a development where bus interchanges are seamlessly integrated with malls. Currently, new Integrated Transport Hubs (ITHs) that are under construction are in Bidadari, Buangkok and Punggol North. More of such developments will be constructed. These include areas such as Beauty World, Bedok South, Hougang, Jurong East, Marina South, Pasir Ris, Tampines North and Tengah.
Having integrated malls with bus interchange, residents staying in that town can enjoy the ease of transport and at the same time, getting their shopping or daily items/chores done in the mall. Commuters may not even need to “walk outside” of the mall to get most of their things done. Once done, they could head back to their home from the connected bus interchange.
With the improved amenities, most properties around these hubs should benefit from it. However, do consider what will happen to the commercial shops or establishments surrounding or around such Hubs. Will consumer be willing to walk say 5 minutes outside the mall to do their shopping there?
Conclusion
By understanding the future transport infrastructure, it is one of the constituents that can give us some hints on how the future projected property prices will be heading.
Finally, do keep in mind that property prices can be influenced by a lot of other elements, including supply and demand forces, economic growth, government cooling measures, bank interest rates, population growth, resident income etc. Therefore, do consider all these different elements to form a good insight before making any property investment decision.
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