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A 1.76 ha land parcel zoned for residential use at Simon Road - next to Kovan MRT station - is now open for application, said the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) yesterday.

'This site is one of the most attractive residential sites on the Government Land Sales Programme for the second half of 2006,' said Nicholas Mak, director of research and consultancy at Knight Frank. 'The potential development for this site will be a mass-market suburban condominium, where a majority of the apartments would be the 3-bedroom types.'

URA estimates that 535 units could be built on the 99-year leasehold site, which has a 3.5 plot ratio - giving it a maximum gross floor area of 61,700 sq m. Mr Mak expects it to fetch between $200-$235 million, which works out to between $300-$350 per sq ft per plot ratio (psfppr).

'Even though the price increase of the mass-market suburban condominiums has been much lower than that of the high-end residential segment, such development sites with close proximity to the MRT has always proven to be very popular with developers,' he said. Savills Singapore agreed with the assessment, pointing out that the adjacent Kovan Melody land parcel was awarded in 2003 at $255 million or $268 psfppr.

'The total land value (for the new site) may be around $180-$200 million,' said Wallace Chu, senior manager for research and consultancy at Savills.

'We would expect the current developer of Kovan Melody to be one of many interested parties along with local developers who are experienced in the mass market projects,' he added. Kovan Melody was developed by Wing Tai and NTUC Choice Homes.

The sale site is on the government's reserve list, which means that it will only be put up for tender if a developer's indicated minimum bid price is acceptable to the government.