Asian property buyers accounted for 51 per cent of new home sales in central London in 2011, or one in every two new homes built, a report by Jones Lang LaSalle reveals. 

The report showed Hong Kong buyers leading Asia with 17 per cent of the sales and also listed China, Malaysia and Singapore investors as top buyers. The total number of home purchases in the year by Asians is up from 47 per cent in 2010. 

The majority of the home sales recorded for 2011 involved plans to rent the properties out following their purchase, Jones Lang LaSalle said. A good 28 per cent of the buyers had also paid in cash. 

The study complements related research by Global Blue, the financial services intelligence firm, which said that Chinese tourists make up the largest group of tax-free shoppers worldwide. In 2011, Chinese travellers represented the highest growth in spending globally at 57 per cent, followed by Switzerland at 37 per cent and Taiwan at 34 per cent.

According to the 2011 World Wealth Report by Capgemini and Merrill Lynch, Asia has surpassed Europe in terms of the number of resident high net worth individuals, expanding 9.7 per cent from 2010 to 3.3 million, while Europe grew only 6.3 per cent to 3.1 million.