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Owners of the residential site - the 10-unit Mayer Mansion at Devonshire Road - are asking for $38.5 million for the property, inclusive of a development charge of $507,000. The site has a 2.8 plot ratio, which brings the asking price to $1,026 per square feet per plot ratio (psf ppr).

The site has a building height limit of 36 storeys. Richard Quek, managing director of PMC, the property consultancy handling the sale, says that as many as 30 units of 1,250 sq ft each can be built on the site.

'Sites in the prime Orchard Road area launched over the past 18 months generally have been big-ticket items, requiring massive development capital,' says Mr Quek. 'Smaller developers looking to develop upmarket luxury projects in the area, therefore, have been shut out of this market segment. In this regard, the Mayer Mansion site, with a plot size of 13,404 sq ft, affords a rare opportunity for smaller developers wishing to develop an upmarket exclusive project.'

But market watchers told BT that the asking price is relatively high. If a developer pays $1,026 psf ppr for the site, the breakeven cost is estimated to be around $1,500 psf ppr.

The site - about two minutes' walk to the Somerset MRT station - is in an area that is expected to see increased activity once shopping malls at the former Glutton Square and Somerset MRT sites are complete in about three years. Nearby residences are selling well. The Metz, a luxury 169-unit condo by MCL Land launched in November 2004 at about $1,238 psf, is fully sold, while the 157-unit Ritz Residences has sold about 80 per cent of the 117 units released so far in a soft launch - at an average of at least $1,400 psf.

If the asking price is met, the 10 owners of Mayer Mansion stand to make around $3.8 million each.