A series of strategic joint venture development deals has seen the business build a 4,125 pipeline of homes and 166,000 sq ft commercial space, valued at around £3.2bn (2016:£560m).

Mount Anvil said it had adopted a cautious approach in recent years to buying land through competitive bid processes in the over-heated London market, preferring to build long-term relationships with existing and potential partners

It said this long-term approach was now paying off and saw it exchanging contracts last year on three central London schemes with a combined capacity to deliver over 1,200 new homes.

So far in 2018, the development arm has stepped up its pipeline exchanging further contracts on 2,000 homes with a further 1,000 units at an advanced development stage of the legal process.

Its next build out scheme will be Royal Docks West, a 19 storey block next to Customs House Crossrail station in East London.

Meanwhile, a sharp rise in average home prices at existing schemes in 2017 to over £1m a home lifted group profit by 60% to nearly £12m from revenue of £225m.

The building contracting arm of central London developer Mount Anvil saw revenue rise 50% last year to £147m as several major schemes moved to full construction.

But pre-tax profits at the arm slid from £1.8m previously to just £300,000 last year.

Despite lower returns from construction, sales director Jon Hall said: “We are delighted with the success of our approach, which is focussed on maximising long-term profit, minimising risk and delivering a positive legacy.”

The strong financial performance of its schemes left closing net cash of £32m, after repayment of £25m of group debt, achieving the milestone of leaving Mount Anvil debt-free at 2017 year-end.