Sales data will dismay campaigners for more affordable housing in London as ‘nauseating’ promotional film is taken down

Foreign purchasers have bought 80% of the homes in a series of major new Thameside housing developments in the latest sign that struggling London homebuyers are being squeezed out by wealthy international investors.

A quarter of properties bought in the four developments were taken by buyers from the far east and around 20% from the Middle East, according to the leading estate agent Knight Frank. The agent also revealed that 40% of all the homes in the schemes were sold to investors.

The sales data will dismay campaigners for more affordable housing for Londoners who complain they are being priced out of living in the capital. But it is seen as good news by the estate agency which has quoted it approvingly in a marketing brochure aimed at persuading developers to invest in a similar project, the proposed 291 luxury apartment scheme at Vauxhall Cross, on the south side of the Thames.

The sales pitch for the Vauxhall development says London is “widely regarded as the ‘gold bullion’ of international property markets” and boasts that returns on property in the area have been “better than … the FTSE 100 and gold”.

Knight Frank declined to name the four schemes which were largely acquired by foreign buyers. But they are thought to be similar in size and standard to the proposed Vauxhall Cross scheme.

Knight Frank focuses on prime property in some of the most desirable riverside areas of the capital such as Vauxhall, Chelsea and Tower Bridge.

The purchase figures emerged amid signs of a growing backlash against developers targeting foreign investors rather than providing affordable homes.

Last week, Berkeley Group PLC, one of the UK’s largest house builders, unveiled a new marketing drive for apartments in a planned 50-storey tower by Blackfriars Bridge where the cheapest home is being sold for £1.15m and the most expensive is available for £23m.

A promotional video aimed at foreign buyers had to be taken down almost immediately after it was attacked on Twitter as “nauseating” and “absolutely revolting”. It showed a buyer flying into London on a private jet, driving to the skyscraper in a Bentley and buying an apartment as a surprise gift for his girlfriend as if it was a piece of “curving glass sculpture”.

The four-minute film showed the man and his wife sipping champagne in the Tate Modern before the man sent his wife for a swim in the rooftop pool, bought the property and presented her with the home as a gift.

“We have removed the video,” said a spokeswoman for Berkeley Group, who otherwise declined to elaborate on the contents of the film. “We are not making any comment on that.”

London Mayor Boris Johnson has admitted that London is suffering “a desperate shortage of homes” and last year warned: “London homes aren’t some kind of new global asset class. They aren’t just blocks of bullion in the sky.”

After several London developments were marketed first in Hong Kong and Singapore before being promoted in the capital he has asked developers halt the practice. Tom Copley, Labour’s housing spokesman on the London Assembly, said the 80% foreign sales revealed by Knight Frank showed the mayor’s policy was “clearly failing”.

“The fact that only a fifth of these developments are bought by domestic buyers highlights the extent to which the needs of people who live here and contribute towards the success of this city – no matter where they are from originally – are not being met by London’s housing market,” he said. “Not only is the mayor’s agreement woefully inadequate, but some of the developers that have signed up to it appear to be ignoring it.”

A spokesman for Knight Frank said the very high level of foreign investment related to “a narrow percentage of the market and in the total market across London it is a much smaller proportion”. Property industry sources have also claimed that foreign sales of homes are now slowing compared to the boom period of 2012.

In a further sign that some new London developments are not meeting affordability targets, Barratt Homes has this month submitted an application to build a 28-storey tower of 135 apartments close to Battersea heliport of which just 14 of which are classed as “affordable”.

Wandsworth is facing an annual shortfall of 1,586 affordable homes and the council’s policy is that at least one in three new-build homes should be for social rent, intermediate rent or shared ownership.

However, Barratt claimed in a planning statement to support the application that this was “the maximum reasonable level supported by this scheme”. Asked why the level was so low a spokesman claimed the scheme “will set a new standard of design innovation and quality”.

Barratt’s application is one of dozens of new high-rise housing developments planned along the banks of the Thames and the trend has invited unfavourable comparisons with high rise proliferation in Shanghai and Dubai.

The boom is partly driven by demand among international investors in unstable parts of the world including Russia and the Middle East who consider London property a lucrative safe haven.