The sale of the sites on Stubbs Road, Begonia Road, and at Ngau Tam Mei, comes two weeks after the auction of the former Ko Shan Road Customs and Excise Service Married Quarters in Hung Hom, which was sold to Nan Fung Development and Wing Tai Properties for HK$1.53 billion - close to analysts' top estimates.

The 160,384 square foot Lingnan College site on Stubbs Road is likely to attract the keenest attention tomorrow because it is in the established luxury residential area overlooking Happy Valley.

Offering a total gross floor area of up to 180,835 sqft including 16,146 sqft for retail proposes, the site should fetch between HK$3.6 billion and HK$4.5 billion, or HK$19,908 to HK$25,000 per square foot, based on analysts' estimates.

Market watchers said the college site was a rare offering and should be highly sought-after by medium- and large-sized developers.

Since the government has imposed a seven-storey height restriction on the development, Midland Surveyors director Alvin Lam Tsz-pun believes it will be used for low-rise buildings with large flats and houses.

'It offers many possibilities, but the only downside is that it is on a hillside which may increase construction costs,' said Lam, adding he expected many bidders at the auction.

In a report, analysts at Samsung Securities predicted the site could be developed into more than 100 large flats of about 1,700 sqft and priced at about HK$32,000 per square foot.

Developers should therefore be willing to invest HK$22,291 per square foot to buy the site, or bids of at least HK$4 billion, they said.

The asking price for an apartment in the neighbouring Broadwood Twelve development, which was completed a few months ago, is HK$24,171 per square foot, according to the report.

Developers are also likely to compete keenly for the site at 62 Begonia Road in Yau Yat Chuen - another traditional area for luxury villas and flats.

The 30,247 sqft site is small with a low plot ratio of 1.216 and restricted site coverage of no more than 40 per cent - meaning that the total gross floor area is only 36,781 sqft. But surveyors are upbeat about the selling price, with estimates ranging from HK$500 million to HK$768 million, or HK$13,594 to HK$20,880 per square foot, because it can be used for building villas.

Any price above HK$17,976 per square foot will make it the most expensive site in Kowloon, beating the price paid by Chinachem Group last year for two sites in Ede Road in Kowloon Tong.

'This is the only Kowloon Tong site in the existing land application list after three sites in the district were sold to Chinachem and Kerry Properties last year,' Samsung analyst Vivien Chan and her colleagues wrote in a report. 'As such, we expect aggressive bidding, as the small site is likely to attract keen interest from small- and medium-sized developers.'

The third site in Ngau Tam Mei, off San Tam Road and near Maple Gardens in Yuen Long should fetch the government about HK$410 million to HK$700 million, or HK$4,000 to HK$6,924 per square foot, analysts said.

The 252,739 sqft site has a total gross floor area of 101,095 sqft because of a low plot ratio of 0.4. Since the site is limited to three-storey projects, market watchers expect fewer than 40 detached houses will be built on the site.

Despite the drawback of being somewhat remote and on a hillside, property agents said the land was suitable for the development of luxury villas with gardens.

Ringo Lam, of surveying firm A.G. Wilkinson & Associates, said he expected the government would continue to increase land supply by putting up more sites for sale. Developers, particularly small- and medium-sized firms, might jointly bid for the sites to strengthen their financial ability while lowering investment and competition risk.

The government will auction two sites on Borrett Road in Mid-Levels and Ping Kwai Road in Ping Shan, Yuen Long next month and some of the city's largest developers have expressed interest in bidding.

James Cheung King-tat, executive director at Centaline Surveyors, said a few months ago that developers were more cautious because of new limits on extra floor areas they could get when including green features in their buildings.