KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 28 - Malaysia's second-richest man Tan Sri T. Ananda Krishnan is among an elite


group of some 10 foreign investors who are buying up large swathes of property


in London and pushing up prices beyond the reach of local Britons, The Guardian reported.

According to a report


in the UK daily yesterday, the Malaysian billionaire's main business holding,


Usaha Tegas Group, has sent in plans to build 104 luxury homes on land that


previously housed the St John's Wood barracks.

The proposed apartment


units are expected to sell for up to Pound 5m (RM37 million) each, with the detached


mansions containing seven bedrooms on the same site carrying a higher price tag


though the report did not mention a sum.

According to The Guardian, sites for close to 30,000 homes in the UK


capital city are owned by just 10 investors from Malaysia, Hong Kong, China,


Australia, Singapore and Sweden, sparking concern from British politicians and


housing industry experts that Londoners won't be afford their own homes.

Citing its local


lawmakers and property gurus, the daily reported many of the new London


developments are being treated as "safe deposit boxes" for its international


investors instead of being owned by locals whom it said were dire need of


housing.

"The capital will not


be sustainable unless people in the public services can afford to live here. We


are pricing them out," Lewisham Deptford MP Joan Ruddock was quoted saying by


The Guardian, urging the city to tighten controls on property.

Hong Kong-listed


conglomerate Hutchison Whampoa is currently behind plans for 3,500 homes in


Ruddock's constituency, according to the news report.

The report, citing


data provided by Molior London, a research house on residential development,


said plans for more than 21,000 homes in central London are being developed by


investors from Malaysia, mainland China, Hong Kong, Singapore.

From 2012 to 2014


alone, Asian investment in all kinds of central London property doubled to


outstrip UK investment, accounting for more than a quarter of the Pound 21b (RM114


billion) that went into the area, according to Savills real estate firm, as


reported by the Guardian.

The report also noted


that Malaysia's Urban Wellbeing, Housing and Local Government Minister Datuk


Abdul Rahman Dahlan was chosen to launch the latest phase of homes at the


revamped Battersea Power Station in November and a new space named Malaysia


square as "pivotal role of foreign governments" in London's housing market.

Richard Blakeway,


London's deputy mayor for housing, land and property, said mayor Boris Johnson


had "challenged" the foreign developers to commit to making new homes available


to Londoners to buy before or alongside overseas buyers.

Oliver Wainwright is


the Guardian's architecture and design critic wrote that


London authorities and the mayor's planning team "must have the strength to


enforce their own plans, or else be trampled by the supercharged bulldozer of


international capital, leaving an empty city in its wake".