The foreign investor market in London is on its knees – with ‘hundreds’ of buyers of homes purchased off-plan over the last four years nursing huge losses, according to Steven Herd, founder and CEO at MyLondonHome.

The problem, says the London estate agent, has been ‘massively under-reported’ by the media with values of some properties having dropped like a stone and some investors unable to complete on their purchases, forcing some developers to take possession.

Other foreign buyers are opting to sell at discounts of up to one-third to avoid having to hand back distressed properties to developers, and then risking legal action and greater losses.

Herd told one publication that his firm is trying to help foreign investors exit deals with the least amount of pain on a daily basis. He said he does not know a single instance where a foreign investor who has bought in the last two years has done anything but made a loss on an off-plan purchase.

In some instances, losses have been as low as 5%-10%, but in others, investors have taken a far greater hit. Developers, he reportedly said, have also not made much noise about the problems for PR reasons as, “they rely on pre-sales, and investors buying into phases one and two of schemes.”