The Labour Party has pledged to block foreign investors from buying new homes in Britain until local people have been offered first refusal.
This follows growing concern that parts of the capital are turning into ghost towns as foreign investors bulk buy new developments and squeeze out local people.
Two recent reports also called for curbs on foreign buyers to prevent a property market bubble, especially in London.
Labour's shadow housing minister Emma Reynolds said it was wrong that people living in the UK were being denied the chance to buy a home because they were "being sold exclusively to overseas buyers", according to a report in The Guardian.
More than half of the 127 apartments in one recently built block in east London were bought by overseas buyers.
Investors from Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong bought one in three for a total of £25m, according to Land Registry records.
And 10 homes in Bezier, a 14-storey apartment block in Islington, have been registered as empty with the town hall.
Similarly, some 500 of the 866 flats proposed in the first phase of the Battersea Power Station redevelopment were sold in the Far East.
Campaigners against regeneration plans for Earls Court accused developers of acting to "socially engineer middle- and low-income families out of central London", because just 10% of the homes on the site will be genuinely affordable, the report said.
The British Property Federation attacked the proposal, warning that it could "spook inward investment" by imposing too many unnecessary restrictions on foreign capital.
Director of policy Ian Fletcher said: "In the midst of a housing crisis, less housing development won't help anyone."
Jon Thompson, operations director of Tudor Vale, the developer of Bezier, warned the proposal would cut off essential upfront investment in the UK, putting further upward pressure on prices.
He also disputed Islington's figures, which were gathered by electoral roll officials, and said he was aware of only four unoccupied apartments in the block.
But the campaign against foreign investment appears to be gathering pace.
Comments
Politicians who prevent competition in their counties are admitting that their citizens are incapable of producing. They are admitting that they, themselves, are harming people.