Seán Mulryan's Ballymore Group has sold one of London's most important development sites to Singaporean investors in a £200 million (€235 million) deal that will be used to pay down debts to the National Asset Management Agency.

The 40-acre site at Royal Wharf, on the River Thames, has planning permission for nearly 4,000 apartments, shops, a school, offices and restaurants and is the largest site sold in London since the Battersea Power Station deal earlier this year.

'Blank canvas'
Offering further evidence of the attractions of east London properties for international investors, the purchaser, Oxley, said it offered "a blank canvas to create something very special for London".

The land, which lies just upriver from the Thames Barrier, is near a Docklands Light Railway station and a Crossrail Underground station that will be open by 2018 and is convenient for London City Airport.

The deals marks the first foray into the rapidly growing London property market by the Singaporean company, which has up to now built homes, offices and factories in Singapore, China, Malaysia and Cambodia.

The Irish company’s decision to sell the lands follow its £700m deal to develop lands it has owned for nearly 20 years at London City Island – a third of which were sold to Asian investors during a roadshow last month.

The Royal Wharf deal was welcomed by mayor of London Boris Johnson. “During my trade mission to China last month we met with Oxley Holdings and I am thrilled at this demonstration of their confidence in our great city,” he said.

“This type of deal is exactly why I spent six days meeting businessmen and officials in China banging the drum for the capital, and it is further evidence of the colossal appetite of developers from the Far East and elsewhere to invest in London.”