Hua Hin’s Next Chapter: What the Mayor Has Funded

On 15 October 2026 Hua Hin Today published a long interview with Hua Hin mayor Nopporn Wutthikul, who in May 2025 became the first mayor of Hua Hin City Municipality after the town’s upgrade to city status (Hua Hin Today, 15 October). He set out priorities for air links, two roads, a park, the water supply, the hill at Khao Hin Lek Fai and day care for older residents, with no baht figure for any project; the park, "expected to reopen before the New Year", is the only municipal item with a date. This page first appeared in June 2025, when he had just begun that term, and predicted that his plans would drive property values higher; he had led the town municipality before the upgrade and was already its mayor in 2017. We have rebuilt it as a scorecard instead: nothing in the interview supports a price forecast, and none is made here.

Sorted by what stands behind each item, the list reads simply: two roads have money, a water plant and a hilltop scheme have designs but no confirmed source of money, and an airport has only a wish. Where Hua Hin Today has reported contracts or dates, we have added them, and each section ends with what a buyer should check.

What did the mayor promise in 2025, and what is on his list now?

In May 2025, as mayor-elect, he proposed "a 22-kilometre road running alongside the railway line from Bo Fai to Khao Tao", with no budget or timeline (Hua Hin Today, 14 May 2025). At a HUAHIN NEXT meeting on 21 July 2025 he added a new waterworks in Bo Fai, a "Happiness Centre", more CCTV and LED street lighting, and enclosures for the Khao Hin Lek Fai macaques (Hua Hin Today, 22 July 2025). Our piece on Hua Hin’s smart city plans covers the cameras and parks.

The October list keeps almost every theme; what has changed is the road. It is now three sections, which Hua Hin Today on 12 October put at approximately eight kilometres in all, from Hua Hin Airport to the Hua Na flyover (Hua Hin Today, 12 October). The Bo Fai waterworks is still a design, the Happiness Centre still a proposal and the monkeys are still to be moved. For a buyer, the test of each item is a contract and a date, not a promise.

Which projects have money behind them?

The Railway Bypass Road is the clearest commitment. The mayor says it is "being built across three sections": Hua Hin Soi 2 to Soi 6, Soi 10 to Soi Rong Lek, and Soi 88 to the underpass beneath the Nong Kae Interchange. It is a seven-metre, two-way road beside the tracks, funded by the Department of Public Works and Town & Country Planning, with the municipality coordinating and holding permission to use State Railway of Thailand land. The 12 October report places Soi Rong Lek at Soi 68 and Soi 88 at Bon Kai.

The interview leaves out the cost and the date; on 8 October Hua Hin Today reported that the department had commissioned a contractor under a contract worth 174,722,000 THB, with a construction period of 780 days, from 5 January 2026 to 23 February 2028 (Hua Hin Today, 8 October). At a meeting the mayor chaired on 7 October, officials found that the designs for sections one and two "did not match the land covered by the lease agreement", and electricity poles were obstructing section three. By 12 October construction was under way on the first section. The mayor says the road will "improve traffic flow, reduce congestion-related pollution and improve drainage", but no flood-prone area is named, so do not read it as a fix for the estates and streets that flooded in November 2017, which our guide to Hua Hin flood risk describes.

Chom Sin Road, which the mayor calls "Hua Hin’s first six-lane road", runs between the railway intersection and the Irrigation Centre and was "Funded entirely by the municipal budget". The article does not say it is finished. The widening of Highway 37 to six lanes is a separate national project, covered in our guide to Hua Hin rail and airport access.

If the home is reached across the railway, find out which crossing you would use. In November 2025 four crossings already passed beneath the double-track line, at Chom Sin Road, Soi 88, Soi 94 and Soi 102, while Soi 2, Soi 91 and Soi 97 still had manual gates (Hua Hin Today, 7 November 2025).

What is designed but has no confirmed money?

"A new water treatment plant has been designed for Bo Fai," the mayor says, and once running it "would help provide nearly 24-hour daily water supplies across 90% of the city". He says "the core issue has been resolved", citing "uninterrupted supplies during peak demand at Songkran and New Year". The design is real: a meeting he chaired on 3 March 2026 reviewed proposals for a plant of approximately 500 cubic metres an hour, with no budget or timeline (Hua Hin Today, 4 March). So is the wait. The municipality’s request for fiscal 2026 included a 56,612,500 THB grant for the water supply, but it named a pumping pontoon and pumps to bring water from the Pran Buri Dam pumping station, not a plant at Bo Fai (Hua Hin Today, 15 August 2025), and a new plant at Bo Fai was already on the municipality’s list, under the same mayor, in June 2017 (Hua Hin Today, 10 June 2017).

At Khao Hin Lek Fai, the interview says, the municipality has secured land-use permission from the Royal Forest Department and completed the site design for "an expanded viewpoint overlooking Hua Hin by day and night", "a raised commercial area" and an aviary converted into an enclosure for monkeys moved out of residential areas. It gives no cost or date. On 30 March Hua Hin Today reported that officials had agreed to double the budget to 120,000,000 THB, adding access roads, drainage, lighting and tour-bus parking, with completion expected within the 2026 fiscal year (Hua Hin Today, 30 March). That report did not say where the money comes from. Thailand’s 2026 fiscal year ended on 30 September (Wikipedia), so that target has passed, and the interview speaks of a finished design and plans, not of works.

So ask who supplies water to the house: the city’s Waterworks Division, the Provincial Waterworks Authority or a well. Ask whether there is a storage tank and a pump, and whether the supply was cut in the last dry season. In April 2024 a drought hit Khao Takiab and Hua Don, and businesses bought water from private trucks (Hua Hin Today, 24 April 2024); in January 2026 the city was still dealing with "supply interruptions, low water pressure and concerns over water quality" (Hua Hin Today, 20 January). A promise of nearly round-the-clock water once Bo Fai runs is also a statement about today. Near the hill, weigh fewer monkeys in the gardens against more visitors and tour buses. Ask, too, which local authority serves the estate, because the city’s plans reach only the city: the hill itself stands in tambon Hua Hin, inside the city, while the Hin Lek Fai sub-district named after it has its own Subdistrict Administrative Organization (Wikipedia) and takes in the golf condos, villas and land at Black Mountain, whose golf club gives its address as Hin Lek Fai (Where2Golf).

Which plans are hopes rather than commitments?

The "Creating Happiness Centre" is only proposed: daytime care and health screening for the older relatives of working families, with recreation and municipal services under one roof, but no location or timeline. Our guide to retirement property in Hua Hin covers what exists now.

The mayor welcomes the runway upgrade at Hua Hin Airport, a national project due to be finished by the end of 2026 and covered in the rail and airport guide linked above; the article describes the routes he names, to China, Taiwan, Singapore and Malaysia, as possible connections rather than confirmed airline services, and our guide to Hua Hin’s province plan to 2042 likewise treats named routes as intentions. He wants domestic flights to Phuket, Chiang Mai, Udon Thani, Samui and Krabi, and says the government should subsidise airlines at first. His longer-term goal is a new international airport, "ideally in the Thap Thai or Khao Hin Lek Fai area". We found no site study, responsible agency, budget or date behind it. Thap Thai, more often spelt Thap Tai, is the inland area whose villa market our Hua Hin villa market 2026 update reads for buyers; pay nothing extra there for an airport that does not exist, and remember that one would bring aircraft noise as well as flights.

What reopens in the town centre, and when?

The interview "took place before the news of demolition of Hua Hin’s waterfront buildings", the article notes. The same mayor leads that clearance on Naresdamri Road, where work began on 30 October; our report on the Hua Hin waterfront demolition covers it.

Phon Kingphet Park, the city activity plaza on Damnoen Kasem Road, is the one item with a reopening in sight. The mayor wants a "Hub of Happiness" there, with a youth stage, a street-food and community market, green space and outdoor fitness, open first on Friday to Sunday evenings, and in the interview it was "expected to reopen before the New Year". At an inspection he led on 28 October, the contractor gave a looser date: "expected to be completed no later than January 2027" (Hua Hin Today, 29 October). The renovation, budgeted at 22,673,890.97 THB (Hua Hin Today, 23 July), was due to finish by mid-July 2025 (Hua Hin Today, 31 October 2024), so at the new date it will be about a year and a half late. For buyers in the centre, a weekend market brings life and some noise; the town-centre buildings are compared in our guide to Baan Sandao and Hua Hin’s town beach condos.

What should a buyer check because of these plans?

Start with the street, not the speech. A home beside one of the three road sections should expect works until the contract ends in February 2028, and then a two-way road meant as an alternative to Phetkasem Road. Drive the crossing you would use at rush hour, ask about the water before you admire the view, and pay nothing for the airport. The mayor says Hua Hin is "no longer just a retirement haven or winter retreat" but a "global workation hub"; what will change daily life first is two roads, a park and the water. This is our reading of published reports, not legal or investment advice, so for any property confirm the facts with the seller, the land office and the local authority.

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