For sale: Battersea bedsit. Price: close to £1m. In the latest sign of the boiling hot London property market, two-bedroom flats in the soon-to-be-converted Battersea power station have gone on sale for more than £1.5m, three-beds for more than £2.7m and four-beds for at least £4m. The 254 homes mostly fashioned from the derelict switch houses in the converted Grade II*-listed 1930s colossus will go in sale in May with “refined industrial-authentic” designs by the architect of David Cameron’s former home, Michaelis Boyd.

An artist’s impression of a flat in Battersea power station. Photograph: Battersea Power Station Development Company/PA

The developers claim they will be approximately 40% larger than the average London new-build, but with even a studio flat starting at £800,000 what London buyers can afford them? The Malaysian developers have responded to growing political concern at foreign investors snapping up British homes and leaving them empty by launching the scheme only in London “to attract owner-occupiers based in the UK or who have a commitment to the UK”. Yet they admit they will not restrict purchasers, leaving the door open for agents for Hong Kong or Singapore “buy-to-leave” investors to fly in with bids. About 500 of the 866 flats being built by the same developer beside the power station were sold in east Asia.

How the garden is expected to look. Photograph: Battersea Power Station Development Company/PA

Rob Tincknell, chief executive of the Battersea Power Station Development Company, said the latest homes had been “designed with a view to attracting owner-occupiers who want to be at the heart of the vibrant community”.

The rest of the power station is to be converted into a “unique luxury retail, office and gastronomic experience” and apartments on neighbouring land will eventually create 3,400 new homes.