About 26 developers are believed to have been interested in the land - the former site of St Vincent's School in Queen Street.

This week, with a buyer now believed to have been secured, two interested sources told the Knutsford Guardian that the 0.2 acre site had sold for about £450,000.

The current building is used as a church hall but will be demolished to make way for four to five houses approved by Macclesfield Borough Council in an outline application last year.

But councillors will want to ensure that any new plan includes provision for off-street parking because of current traffic problems in Queen Street.

"It is a very bad spot traffic wise and will have to be looked at in any detailed plan," said Clr Bert Grange.

The trustees of the site, Shrewsbury Roman Catholic Diocese, said that contracts had not yet been exchanged on the site, but that a deal was now being arranged by their agents.

Agents Guthrie Bond declined to comment.