“Wealthy Egyptians, Greeks, Spaniards, Italians, Indians, Chinese… anyone who is worried about political and economic stability in their homelands, is approaching us with a view to buying a wealth haven in London,” said Tabor, who is a partner at independent buying agent Turnbull Property Acquisition.

He says now around 80 per cent of buyers in prime central residential London are international, and growing. “Domestic buyers can rarely afford the prices these buyers are paying. Values are now well above 2007’s peak and the finest properties are attracting multiple buyers.”

He added that some foreign buyers are now paying over the asking price. “They want a wealth preservation tactic and the lack of supply is likely to keep good prime London properties in demand for many years. Mayfair and Belgravia are becoming the new Monaco on account of its lack of stock.”

He added that because of the weak Sterling many of them are getting a discount through currency arbitrage, so they still feel they are getting a good deal.

Soaring inflation of up to 5 per cent in Asia is also driving the wealthy into property, in search of a hedge.

Tabor’s observations are seconded by high end agent Savills, which this week revealed that sales of £5 million plus residential property in London hit £1.3 billion during the second quarter, a record.

In its quarterly report, Savills said: “Prime Central London has been strong with demand from overseas buyers fuelling the market for larger houses and newly developed luxury apartments. Within this core part of the prime London market, values have risen by 6.3 per cent over the course of the past six months. This six-month price figure rises to 7.9 per cent for houses and values are now 2.5% above their previous 2007 peak.”

Yolande Barns, a partner at Savills, said that international investment was keeping London buoyed while property prices in the rest of the UK remained under pressure. “While mainstream housing markets in the UK have remained sluggish, prices in the prime residential markets of London have returned to growth in 2011. Second quarter price growth of 2.2 per cent brings annual capital growth to 4.3 per cent,” she said.

Accordingly, Savills has revised its forecast for price growth in 2011 to 8 per cent in prime central London and 6 per cent across prime London as a whole, effectively bringing forward some of the market leading growth that we had forecast for the period to 2016.

The agent cautioned that the recovery will not be entirely smooth with the uncertainty in the euro-zone which could hamper the global wealth generation that has underpinned prime London’s strong performance since the market bottomed out in 2009.