The property investment service found despite some high profile expensive purchases, the average price of new-build properties in London excluding prime central property grew by only 0.37% per year. By contrast, older properties saw growth of 7%.

LCP chief executive Naomi Heaton said: “These properties are marketed en-masse at glamorous property exhibitions as speculative investments, particularly targeting unsophisticated buyers in Asia. They are bought off-plan in what can only be described as a feeding frenzy.”

She said investors should take care: “Investors are paying a premium for newness, which by implication has built in obsolescence. At re-sale, units in big schemes can only compete on price.

“In the meantime, the rush of identical properties coming on to the market for rental means landlords are all vying for tenants at the same time, with a resultant downward pressure on rents.”

LCP’s analysis of Land Registry data found three of the top ten most expensive purchases in the first quarter of 2013 were of London new build developments.

However, the market for new build was even more defined in London’s financial district of Canary Wharf, where 30,000 such units have been built since 2000.