Battersea powers ahead with new £8 billion development

Apartments in the £8 billion riverside development go on sale in Malaysia and Hong Kong in January before being offered to British buyers in February.

The Malaysian developers behind the redevelopment of London’s most famous industrial building said that an unspecified number of the 800 homes in the first phase will be “ring-fenced” for British owners.

But the decision is certain to anger critics who say the wave of foreign buying in central London is a major factor in the capital’s housing crisis.

The Malaysian consortium paid £400 million for the derelict former generator and 39 acres of surrounding land in September, the fourth owners since it stopped producing electricity in 1983.

A spokeswoman said the timing of the sales was driven by the desire of the new owners to offer apartments in their own country first as well as concerns that British buyers would not want to visit the site to view a model in the middle of the winter.

However, it will raise fears of riverside “One Hyde Park” with many apartments owned by foreign investors and standing empty for much of the year.

Rob Tincknell, chief executive of Battersea Power Station Development Company, dismissed the concerns and said it was a central part of the marketing plans that British buyers had the chance to own properties. He said: “We don’t just want to build a building, we want to build a community.”

Today’s decision to push ahead with signing contracts early next year is being seen as the most encouraging indication yet that the apparently jinxed generator’s three-decade wait for rescue could soon be over. In the first phase of the project’s 800 homes with riverside views — ranging from studios to five-bed apartments — will be put up for sale. Completion is planned for 2016.

A 700 sq ft one-bedroom flat is likely to be priced at about £750,000 and a 3,000 sq ft five-bedroom apartment at close to £3 million.

An exhibition centre will open on the site in February with a bigger showroom launching by the river in April, when members of the public will be able to walk round the site for the first time.

It also emerged today that the Northern line spur to Nine Elms and Battersea, seen as vital to the success of the project, could open by 2020.

Mr Tincknell said: “The response from the UK and around the world since we began accepting registrations of interest in September has been phenomenal. We will go into 2013 delivering on the promise we made to London to fully restore Battersea Power Station and to create a new town centre for the city.”

The first phase of properties will be in blocks built close to the Grade II* listed “cathedral of power”. However, a later phase will see 180 larger apartments built in the power station building itself with rooftop gardens on top of Europe’s biggest brick building.