Lend Lease has announced plans to ramp up its residential offering in London.

The property group, which is already Australia’s largest developer of master-planned residential communities, said it expects to deliver 1,000 homes a year by 2017. These include 284 units at its 37-storey St Mary’s Tower at Elephant and Castle, expected to be launched early next year.

The company also has outline planning consent for 350 units at the International Quarter in Stratford, which will also include 4m sq ft of office space and a new hotel. It added it is looking for new development opportunities in the capital.

While Lend Lease has already delivered more than 3,500 apartments on behalf of clients such as British Land, Land Securities and the Olympic Delivery Authority, this would be the first time it does it under its own name.

Lend Lease said its core business model would be to build long-term relationships with major public and private sector companies to deliver long-term regeneration projects in London.

Dan Labbad, the company’s European chief executive, said: “There is an acute shortage of new homes in London and we believe that we have the capability to take advantage of a unique market opportunity.  We will be building on our residential track record and those who buy homes from us will experience for themselves exactly why Lend Lease is one of the most trusted names globally in property and construction.”