Only one in five London new builds sold to British buyers according to new data
Developers are increasingly offloading properties to housing associations and investment firms over UK buyers
Only one in five London new-builds are now sold to British buyers, new data has revealed.
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Sales to UK residents dipped between April and June from 49% of deals to 21% ,as developers increasingly choose to target properties at corporations.
Some 69 per cent of new homes sold in London in the three months to June were sold to housing associations or overseas investment funds, according to data firm Molior.
This was more than double the 28% share in the same period last year.
A collapse in demand and rising construction costs are among the factors being blamed for the slump.
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Tim Craine, founder of Molior, said developers were predicting that selling the homes to people will be "very, very difficult".
He told the Telegraph: “It is a feature of a weak market. People have stopped buying new homes in London."
Developers are deciding that launching the homes to sell to people will be a "failed strategy" and opting to offload them to private equity "to avoid a cash flow situation in 12 months’ time" he said.
The figures come as Andy Burnham is on track to miss his government's target of building 1.5 million new homes by the end of the current Parliament by more than half.
There were just 2,792 new build property sales in London between April and June, down 40% from the same period in 2019.
Just 589 of those new homes were bought by British buyers across London.
A combination of high house prices and mortgage rates, a crack down on the buy-to-let property investment model and mounting building safety regulation and construction costs have been blamed for the slump.
Mr Craine said more landlords in London were selling their stock in new build developments rather than buying, putting them in competition with developers selling newer properties.
Selling to corporations in bulk means that instead of being sold privately, properties can be managed by investment funds as build-to-rent blocks, or by housing associations as affordable housing.