Property worth £2.8 billion was sold in Tower Hamlets last year, figures reveal.

Land Registry data list 3,408 sales in the borough for 2017, including 14 worth £10 million or more.

Bermuda-registered company Spencer Holdings Ltd spent a whopping £257m for units in 5 Churchill Place, Canary Wharf – the most expensive property in the borough.

The deal represents the third highest payment by a foreign firm for property in the UK.

Meanwhile, two units in 20 Canada Square, the home of BP and big bank Morgan Stanley, were each bought for nearly £119m by DS Four Retail Ltd, which is registered in Barbados.

More than 850,000 residential sales were listed across England and Wales in 2017, down three per cent from the 877,307 recorded by this time the previous year.

The government shelved plans to privatise the Land Registry following heavy criticism in 2016.