A plum hotel site at Havelock Road was put up for sale by the Urban Redevelopment Auhtority on Wednesday, after an unnamed developer offered a minimum bid of $18 million for the plot earlier this month.

This works out to about $780 per sq ft (psf) per plot ratio (ppr).

The 16,535.5 sq ft site, with a maximum permissible gross floor area (GFA) of 23,088.6 sq ft, was made available on the reserve list on Jun 27.

The plot currently houses three conserved warehouse buildings, to be restored for use as a hotel by the successful bidder. The development will also sit near a cluster of hotels, including The Gallery Hotel and The Grand Copthorne Waterfront Hotel.

Sites on the reserve list are only put up for tender if a developer first commits to buy it for a sum acceptable to the Government.

Analysts had earlier expected the winning bid to fall between $850 and $980 psf ppr - or a total sum of $19.6 million to $22.6 million - when the site was first put on the reserve list.

But June's mortgage tightening rules have since cooled the market sentiment in the residential segment, and analysts have increased their expectations to between $920 and $980 psf ppr as more developers, dissuaded from residential developments, might be tempted to bid for the hotel site.