Lodha Group, India’s largest property developer by sales, is looking to invest up to $4.9bn in London’s residential market by the end of 2018.Â
The firm has already bought Macdonald House, the former Canadian high commission building in Mayfair, for $500m, and it picked up a $147m property in Holborn that it will redevelop as an apartment block.Â
Abhishek Lodha, managing director of the company, told the Financial Times that he planned "the largest foreign direct investment in the UK housing space ever".Â
Lodha said: "We want to be among the top two developers in London in the next five years. Our idea is to make significant investments, which will come out of the cash flows we are generating here in Mumbai."Â
The group plans to spend $2.9bn on assets and a further $2bn on construction.
The projects would range from "mid-market to super-prime".Â
The Mumbai based company is currently involved in two huge projects in its home city: it is developing the World One tower, the world’s tallest residential skyscraper, and also a 75-storey luxury development in partnership with Donald Trump.