Mayor of London Boris Johnson yesterday announced a further four zones across the city, where new housing of different tenures will be fast-tracked.

The new zones in Havering, Enfield, Redbridge and Tower Hamlets will together deliver over 12,000 new homes – and could concentrate the minds of agents looking for places to set up or expand.

In Havering, a new “garden suburb” will be created from former industrial land, offering 3,457 new homes. This was the largest slab of land in the Mayor’s portfolio. In Enfield, there will be 3,650 new homes, with a promise of four trains an hour running into central London by March 2018.

Ilford will capitalise on the arrival of Crossrail, with over 2,000 new homes, while in Tower Hamlet there will be some 3,500 new homes.

Johnson’s announcement brings the number of housing zones announced to 15 with a total of 45,109 homes created.

Included in the new zones will be two new rail stations, a large new park, new primary schools, and new retail and entertainment precincts. They will revitalise currently disused brownfield sites and turn them into neighbourhoods.

Johnson said: “Housing zones will provide the swift delivery of new homes for Londoners that is so desperately needed and create entirely new, highly-connected urban districts for generations to come.

“By freeing up empty brownfield sites from lengthy approval processes and providing a funding boost, we can ensure new housing capacity is created in areas where it might never otherwise have happened.”

The new zones are a key part of the Mayor’s London Plan target of building nearly half a million homes over the next ten years. Up to 20 housing zones across London will be announced in total.