Two urban railway lines under construction are the 41.5km Urban Light Railway in the northern part of Beijing, also known as the No 13 urban railway line, and the 18.8km Batong line, which connects eastern Beijing with the nearby suburb of Tongzhou.

Since the two projects were launched in 2000, land and real-estate prices along the railway have grown continuously, with prices of some suburban developments rising from 2,600 yuan (about HK$2,436) per square metre to 4,000 yuan.

Suburban property developers are likely to be the biggest winners from the expansion of the railway network.

'In the past, fearing traffic jams, people did not buy our housing projects, but now the situation has changed,' said Fang Mingli, general manager of Beijing Xinhualian Real Estate, which developed two projects in the Tongzhou area along the urban railway line.

According to Beijing's long-term urban planning scheme, which was approved by the central Government in 1998, 13 urban railway lines connecting the outskirts and urban areas of the capital will be constructed in the next 50 years, with the length of the network to reach 5,000km.

Yet the railway construction also poses challenges to developers along the railway lines.

Under a new policy which will take effect next month, all land transactions related to real-estate development must be publicly auctioned instead of privately agreed on.

This means developers with greater capital will be able to build up massive land resources along the railway lines, curbing the growth of smaller developers in Beijing.

Also, much of the land along the urban railway lines is arable, which means its use is limited to commercial rather than residential development.