Thailand's national spatial plan: cities and urban planning

Which cities does Thailand want to grow by 2037?

Eight cities will each anchor a region by 2037, according to the 2026–2037 National Spatial Policy Plan: Chiang Mai, Nonthaburi, Khon Kaen, Hat Yai, Nakhon Ratchasima and Phuket, which already hold that rank, joined by Pattaya and Phitsanulok. Prepared by the Department of Public Works and Town & Country Planning, or DPT, and published in the Royal Gazette on 5 October 2026, the plan places these centres directly below Bangkok, the only city of international rank (printed page 59). Pattaya's promotion, which we examine in the employment area behind the seaside city, is the most visible for a foreign buyer. Phitsanulok's gives the North a second centre after Chiang Mai.

Below these eight centres, the whole pyramid widens. Subregional centres rise from 19 to 30: Chon Buri, Chachoengsao, Mae Sot and Rangsit join Koh Samui, Hua Hin and Krabi. The fourth tier, main cities (labelled “City” in the plan), grows from 49 to 86; the fifth, small towns (“Town”), from 60 to 200 (printed pages 59–60). Added together, the five tiers rank 325 cities and towns by 2037, against 135 in the baseline. This is the direct expression of one of the section's five policies: spreading prosperity to the regions and rebalancing the urban network.

A tier is not an honorific: the plan attaches a list of target facilities to each one (printed page 71). A regional centre is expected to bring together a specialist hospital accredited to international standards, universities and research centres, a digital network of at least 5G, an international convention centre, public transport within and between cities, and a regional park. At the fifth tier, the list becomes that of a well-served small town: a general hospital or large community hospital, vocational education, public transport, a neighbourhood park (printed page 72). A town's tier therefore sums up what the state intends to see there by 2037.

The ranking runs through the rest of the plan. Bangkok and the eight regional centres form exactly the list of nine cities targeted for expanded wastewater collection and treatment, and the list of nine sponge cities (printed page 77); they feature in the extension of drinking-water supply, alongside ten towns in the special economic zones, and they are the nine targets for development around stations, known as transit-oriented development or TOD (printed page 20). The energy chapter follows the same order for electric-vehicle charging points: tiers 1 and 2 up to 2027, tiers 3 and 4 from 2028 to 2032, tier 5 from 2033 to 2037 (printed pages 121–122). Tier sets the order of priority.

The plan also looks beyond municipal boundaries. It designates four conurbations to be managed as single units: Bangkok and its surrounding area, and the Eastern Economic Corridor, or EEC (Chachoengsao, Chon Buri, Rayong), at national level; Chiang Mai–Lamphun and Hat Yai–Songkhla at regional level (printed page 61). For each, it calls for a management committee and a master plan, due in 2027 for Bangkok and the EEC, 2032 for Hat Yai–Songkhla and 2037 for Chiang Mai–Lamphun (printed page 63). It acknowledges what every resident already knows: you live in one municipality, but you work, see a doctor and shop across a conurbation.

The ambition behind this map is set out at the start of the document: a country that is “a good place to live for all, connected to its region, driven by innovation and ready for sustainable growth” (printed page 8). It also comes with a number. The target is average growth in gross provincial product of 4% by 2032 and 5% by 2037 in the provinces hosting these centres, against 3.6% in the baseline (printed page 63). In other words, growth spread more evenly, bringing jobs and services closer to the places where people choose to live.

Jobs and services: where does year-round living make sense?

Year-round living is best judged where the plan aligns jobs, housing and urban tier, and the East is the clearest example. There the DPT targets quality housing for workers in Si Racha and Ban Chang districts, in the same table as the smart ports of Laem Chabang and Map Ta Phut and the smart airport at U-Tapao (printed page 73). Both towns are also promoted to the fourth tier. Housing, business and services move forward together here: it is the most useful lens for an address away from the tourist circuit.

The housing policy extends this principle to Bangkok, the regional centres and the subregional centres. It targets housing schemes close to jobs, schools and mass transit to cut commuting times, public housing near transport for low-income households and older people, the renewal of older neighbourhoods and more mixed-use districts (printed pages 74–75). For a buyer, being close to a future station also signals the kind of neighbourhood the plan wants new residents to move into.

Healthcare follows the same geography. Centres for complex treatment are targeted in Bangkok and the provinces of Chiang Mai, Phitsanulok, Khon Kaen, Nakhon Ratchasima, Nonthaburi, Chon Buri, Phuket and Songkhla — in other words, the provinces of the eight regional centres (printed page 94). Rehabilitation centres for patients and older people cover 26 areas, including Phuket, Chiang Mai, Chon Buri and Rayong. The document also counts 59 facilities in the country accredited by Joint Commission International (printed page 91). Our article on the services that shape an address connects these lists with water, schools and digital access.

For anyone working remotely, the digital chapter matters as much as the view. Fibre is to be upgraded in the EEC, the special economic zones, the four regional corridors and a set of provinces that includes Chiang Mai, Phuket and Prachuap Khiri Khan, then extended to the central district of every province (printed pages 172–174). In cities of the top three tiers, the target is a network of at least 5G (printed page 71).

Urban public transport completes the map. Seventeen cities are targeted for a mass-transit system, from Bangkok to Chiang Mai, Phuket, Pattaya, Khon Kaen, Hat Yai and Rayong (printed page 153). For a resident who wants to live without a car, it is one of the first lists to check. The table below sets out the top two levels of the hierarchy beneath Bangkok.

Two indicators of the urban system in the plan:

How do you get from a national plan to an address?

First, by separating what the plan commits from what it leaves to local levels. Under section 12 of the Town Planning Act B.E. 2562 (2019), once the plan is published, government agencies must act in line with its directions, with advice from the DPT (printed page 6). It therefore steers public action and public investment. The permitted use of a plot, by contrast, is governed by provincial and municipal town plans and the corresponding permits.

The second habit is to read the timeline column. Every measure in the plan is tied to a horizon — short term 2027, medium term 2032, long term 2037 — and to the agencies responsible. The Chiang Mai–Lamphun master plan, due by 2037, does not run on the same clock as the EEC's, due by 2027. What separates a good project from an average one often comes down to this precision: a seller who invokes the plan should be able to say which measure, on what horizon, carried by which agency.

The third is to come down to the building. A province targeted for complex care does not tell a household how far it will be from the right hospital; a province targeted for fibre does not say which provider serves a given development. Those answers are checked on site: the actual journey to the hospital and the school, the internet service available in the building, the connection to the public sewer network.

Land works the same way. The plan caps the urban share of the country at 2.79% in 2027, 2.99% in 2032 and 3.24% in 2037, against 2.39% in 2021, while targeting 35% natural forest and at least 43.11% farmland in 2037 (printed page 50). Cities can grow, within a defined national envelope; exactly where that growth goes is for local plans to decide. Our article on Thailand's land and how it is used follows that question down to the plot.

Phuket and Chiang Mai: what does a regional perspective add?

A regional view takes each destination beyond its main town. In Phuket, the plan does not stop at Phuket City, a regional centre: Patong is promoted to the fourth tier, and Chalong, Rawai and Karon enter the fifth, alongside Kathu, already listed (printed pages 59–60). The communities of the south and west of the island, which buyers know for their beaches, thus join the state's urban grid, with the level of services that goes with it.

The island also sits within a region. The Andaman Wellness Corridor brings together Phuket, Krabi, Phang Nga, Ranong, Trang and Satun (printed page 183), and the plan selects these six provinces, together with those of the regional centres, for a “Health Trade Complex” combining care and medical training (printed page 94). Phuket is also already a UNESCO Creative City of Gastronomy (printed page 216). For a couple who winter on the island and are thinking of living there all year, these lists sketch a living area much wider than the coast.

Around Chiang Mai, the same logic applies. Mae Rim, Hang Dong, Suthep and Mae Hia are promoted to the fifth tier (printed page 60). The Chiang Mai–Lamphun conurbation is given a mass-transit project linking the two cities and a master plan for a “Lanna creative economy city” (printed page 74). The Northern Economic Corridor, or NEC, groups Chiang Rai, Chiang Mai, Lamphun and Lampang around the creative economy (printed page 183); Chiang Mai is already a UNESCO Creative City for crafts and folk art (printed page 216).

The two destinations also share an airport project. The plan's programme provides for a second airport for Chiang Mai, between Ban Thi (Lamphun) and San Kamphaeng (Chiang Mai), and a second for Phuket, in Phang Nga, because the existing airports are over capacity (printed page 153); the tourism section calls them the Lanna and Andaman international airports (printed page 139). Neither a timetable nor site boundaries have been fixed: our article on the Lanna and Andaman airports follows their progress and what it means for the areas around them.

Helen and David, between Phuket and Chiang Mai

Which questions should you ask before choosing a property?

Four questions are enough to connect a property with the plan. Which municipality is it in, and which tier does the plan give it? Does that municipality appear on the lists that matter to you: water, sanitation, mass transit, healthcare, fibre? On what horizon are the measures concerning it scheduled? And what does the local town plan say about the plot? The first three answers are in the national document; the fourth lies with the provincial or municipal planning office.

The physical conditions of the site complete the picture. The plan counts 370 cities and communities in 100-year flood zones, 214 exposed to landslides when rainfall exceeds 100 mm a day and 844 in earthquake zones; it aims to discourage building on slopes steeper than 35 degrees and in repeatedly flooded lowlands (printed pages 64–65). These national counts tell you where to look; the history of the land and of the building tells you what is actually there.

What you can do now

Write down the exact municipality of every property you look at — Chalong rather than Phuket, Si Racha rather than the EEC — and look it up in the lists on printed pages 59 and 60 of the plan. Within minutes you will know which tier the state gives it and which facilities it intends to provide there by 2037. That is the first line of a comparison that continues on the ground, address by address.

Each article in the “Thailand 2037” series applies this reading to one territory, and our catalogue of map guides carries it onto the map.