The Asia Pacific region is home to some of the world’s most ambitious and transformative infrastructure projects, many of which will generate significant value for real estate investors.

Prospects takes a look at five of the largest infrastructure projects underway in the region today, all of which will offer a range of opportunities to property players, by creating new transport nodes and links, freeing up land or even creating new cities.

Shenzhong Link, China

Southern China’s Greater Bay Area has been a focus for major infrastructure works for years, with the aim of improving connectivity across one of China’s most productive regions. Shenzhong Link (pictured above) connects the Cuiheng New District in Zhongshan with Baoan District, Shenzhen.

The 24km link across the Pearl River Delta consists of bridges and the world’s widest underwater tunnel. It will reduce the journey time between Zhongshan and Shenzhen to 20 minutes, from 120. The link will also extend beyond Zhongshan to the Nansha district in the southeast of Guangzhou.

The Cuiheng and Baoan Districts are both important centres for high-tech manufacturing, says Lucas Zhang, manager, research, at Savills China, and links between the two areas will encourage more development. “The link will strengthen Zhongshan’s collaboration with Shenzhen’s major scientific and technological innovation resources,” he says, “not to mention the advantage to residential markets.”

Sydney Metro, Australia

The largest urban rail project in Australia’s history will bring much-needed public transport to the nation’s financial capital, which has been too reliant on the car for too long.

Sydney’s first metro line, the 13-station Metro North West, opened in 2019 and is being extended into the Sydney CBD and to the southwest, to open in 2024. Last year construction began on Sydney Metro West, linking Paramatta and the CBD, as well as a line which will service the new Western Sydney Airport.

As well as easing traffic into the CBD and creating new areas for development around public transport nodes, the system is designed to cope with Sydney’s growing population, set to rise by almost 3m to 8m by 2050.

Mumbai metro, India

The first Mumbai metro line (pictured above), between Versova in the northwest of the city and Ghatkopar in the east, was opened in 2014 and boosted real estate values in those areas, along with reducing congestion. Now the city has 10 metro lines under construction, with a total of 180km of track. Line 2A, connecting Dahisar in the north with D.N. Nagar in the northwest, is set to open later this year.

Arvind Nandan, managing director, research & consulting at Savills India, says: “There are numerous ongoing infrastructure projects in India, but the Mumbai metro project can lead to radical transformation for one of the largest Asian real estate markets. Its socio-economic impact could be much bigger than that of the iconic Sea Link across the Mahim Bay linking Bandra and Worli, which opened a decade ago.

“The new metro lines should benefit people by lowering travel times, easing pressure on infrastructure, and possibly levelling prices to some extent, as new areas become viable for development. The project is expected to boost investor confidence in the city, enhancing demand for commercial and residential real estate.”

Singapore Deep Tunnel Sewerage system

The advantages of a metro line are easy to understand, but it might be less clear how Singapore’s ambitious new sewer system, which creates an entirely gravity-fed sewer network, will benefit real estate.

The project, which is set to be completed next year, uses 80km of deep tunnels to bring all of Singapore’s waste water to just three purification plants. The redundancy of previous pumping stations and water reclamation plants will free up 150ha of land for redevelopment.

Indonesia’s new capital city

A $32bn plan to relocate Indonesia’s capital from congested and flood-prone Jakarta to a new city in Eastern Kalimantan, Borneo has been hampered by the pandemic, however both President Joko Widodo and his likely successor, Prabowo Subianto, have committed to the project.

As well as easing pressure on Jakarta, the new capital is part of Widodo’s plan to improve development outside of Java, which makes up only 7% of Indonesia’s land area, but contributes 60% of GDP. The new city offers huge opportunities for real estate investors over the longer term, especially if Jakarta suffers more from sinkage and rising sea levels.

Further reading:
Savills blog: Indian infrastructure