Chung Sen Surveyors director Cheng Wing-ming said developers might be more cautious in making their bids, adding more prime residential sites would come up for tender in coming months.

They include a 488,680 sq ft residential site in Leighton Hill Road, Causeway Bay, and a 75,950 sq ft residential plot in Aldrich Bay reclamation area.

These sites and the Canton Road lot were originally scheduled for public auction, but weak market sentiment has forced the Government to turn to tender.

Mr Cheng expected the Canton Road site, providing an estimated 846,532 sq ft to one million sq ft gross floor area, to fetch between $3.5 billion and $4 billion for an accommodation value of $4,000 per square foot.

Based on a land cost of $4,000 per square foot, this would raise the development cost to $6,200 per square foot, he said.

Sale prices could be pitched at about $7,500 per square foot when the project was completed in about three or four years, he said.

'It is good timing for the Government to invite developers to tender for the site as the market sentiment was boosted by the tax relief on mortgages as well as interest rates becoming stabilised,' Mr Cheng said.

S K Pang Surveyors managing director Pang Shiu-kee believed developers were still interested in large residential sites in urban areas due to tight supply.

'There is no other site with similar size in Tsim Sha Tsui available for sale,' he said.

The Lands Department is also inviting bidders for a 378,128 sq ft site in Choi Hung, earmarked for Private Sector Participation Scheme subsidised housing.

Surveyors said it was difficult to predict the value of the subsidised housing site but it was expected roughly to be worth several hundreds of millions of dollars. Tender sale for the Canton Road site will close on March 13, while tenders for the Choi Hung site will close on April 17.