The new homes monitor by Stirling Ackroyd found that the rate of planning approvals was now at rate of 47,460 per year.

This figure is still behind the official target but has increased by 73% since end of 2014, with 11,870 homes entering the pipeline in the first quarter of this year.

The borough of Tower Hamlets approved more homes than any other during the last quarter with 2,940 applications greenlit, accounting for 24% of all new homes. It was followed by Greenwich, Camden and Southwark.

Across the capital 82% of all planning applications for housing were approved, the report said.

Lambeth (26 homes approved), Kingston (21) and Barking (8) were the boroughs which approved the fewest new properties in January, February and March.

Andrew Bridges, managing director of Stirling Ackroyd, said the new supply of homes would benefit many people.

“New homes are on the way.  Having stuttered for so long, London has developed a clear housing deficit.  If this pipeline of new property comes to fruition, it will represent exactly the heavy-duty, industrial scale of response needed to start filling the housing hole.

“Things are finally going in the right direction, yet in fact, government targets may not be set high enough.

“Our analysis shows London needs to build an average of 57,000 new homes a year just to cope with expected population growth over the next decade. That means astronomical improvements in approvals and building starts need to be sustained, and even improved upon, for the next three quarters just to meet what’s needed this year. So Londoners should hope this is more than a brief alignment of the stars, and any complacency now would be a mistake.”