More than 15,000 units of prime residential property worth in excess of £38 billion is being planned for development over the next decade.

Currently, 125 schemes are in the process of site acquisition, planning or construction, equating to a total floor area of almost 20 million square feet, which is equivalent to the size of the Stratford Olympic Park, according to the annual EC Harris' ‘London Prime Residential Development Pipeline' report.

This is about 70% more than from last year's report.

London Residential Property Development

‘Prime' is no longer confined to the like of Mayfair or Chelsea, with two or the largest schemes in development planned for Earls Court and Battersea Power Station, with strategies to deliver hundreds of prime residential units over the next 10 years.

Still, Chelsea & Fulham has the strongest planned development with 25% proposed units to be located in the area, followed by 17% of developments on the South Bank, 12% in City and Fringe, 11% in Midtown and 10% in Kensington.

Head of Resisdential at EC Harris, Mark Farmer said that the summer Olympics has only increased the already "massive" vote of confidence in plc in London and the UK.

"London prime residential continues to act as a magnet for global investment, and offers clear opportunities for properly organised and funded developers and investors to generate healthy returns."

He added, "However, this positivity is tempered by some notes of caution. There are significant risks to the realisation of the pipeline including the sustainability of the unprecedented levels of international investor and sales demand fuelling the lower end of the prime market, a lack of development funding and a scalability of specialist development skills needed to deliver these opportunities."

According to the latest report from Knight Frank's Prime Central London Sales Index for August 2012, annual property price has grown 9.9%, with a 0.5% increase in August alone. Since the recession slump in March 2009, figures show that prices have now risen by 49.9%.

The strongest price growth was felt in properties over £10 million, with an increase of 2.9%. In terms of area, Knightsbridge performed the best, with a 3.6% growth in the last quarter and 15.8% over the last year.