More than one in five properties in some areas of London are being sold to foreign buyers, new figures have revealed.
Campaigners have warned of a 'dire housing crisis' after more than 20 per cent of properties for sale in the richest areas of the capital were bought by foreigners over the past four years.
Some estate agents are reporting even higher rates of international sales, with some saying more than half of all their listed properties are going to overseas purchasers.
The international scrum for the capital's homes has fuelled fears that British buyers are being priced out of the market.
Others say that many of the properties becoming foreign-owned are being left empty and used as investments.
Labour MP Sadiq Khan, who obtained the figures from the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS), is campaigning to stop developers advertising properties overseas before they are advertised in the UK.
He said: 'Londoners are being priced out of the housing market by an influx of foreign buyers, who see London property as an investment and in many cases leave properties sat empty as "ghost homes".
'While Londoners suffer from the dire housing crisis under David Cameron, there are more than 60,000 homes sat empty across the city.
'In some parts of London, up to one in five of homes, already in short supply, are not available to Londoners as a result.'
The City of Westminster and Kensington and Chelsea have the highest level of foreign sales, with more than 20 per cent of homes in both areas sold to overseas buyers.
Other sought-after areas were the City of London, with 17 per cent of property sales going to buyers abroad, and Tower Hamlets, at 12 per cent.
Camden, Islington and Hammersmith and Fulham were also in the top 10 boroughs targeted by overseas investors.
It comes after the average sale price of prime property in central London soared to £4.7million between June and August this year, up from £3.7million in the preceding three-month period.
Rich foreigners are queueing up to buy the latest high-end residential properties on the market, including a planned £100million complex of 22 luxury flats in Old Queen Street - next door to Downing Street and Buckingham Palace.
Richard Barber, a partner for the estate agent WA Ellis in Knightsbridge, said 54 per cent of his company's sales were to overseas buyers - and there was a shortage of affordable homes.
He said: 'Supply is at a much higher rate per foot than the ordinary man in the street can afford.
'Homes are being built at very high luxury levels on expensive land. A nurse is not going to be able to buy a property in Chelsea or Kensington, and the fact a foreigner can buy it isn't going to make the difference.'
The figures emerged after it was revealed that soaring house prices are dragging increasing numbers of middle-income families into higher rates of tax.
London saw a 20 per cent increase in house prices last year, while the rest of South East experienced a rise of more than 12 per cent.
The rapid increase means that even an average-priced home in those areas is now in the three per cent stamp duty bracket and is worth more than £325,000 required for estates to be included in the 40 per cent top rate of inheritance tax.
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SOURCE: the dailymail
