In a sign of the times, people started queueing on Wednesday morning 36 hours ahead of the official launch of a new block of starter home flats in Hounslow, London. The flats – all 215 of them with a combined value of £60m – sold out yesterday evening in a record-breaking three hours, equating to sales at the rate of £335,000 per minute.

Half the purchasers were owner-occupiers, and the rest investors.

Altogether, nine people camped overnight on Wednesday, while by 9am yesterday morning there were 30 people in the queue outside Trinity Square, the former head office of American Airlines Europe.

The queue built up to some 150 people ahead of the launch at 5pm yesterday afternoon, and by 6.30pm, 250 people had surged through the doors . By 8pm, all the apartments had been sold.

The development will not be ready for occupation for almost two years and is scheduled for completion in the third quarter of 2017.

Over 2,000 people had registered for the launch of the flats, all studios or one-bedroom apartments, with prices starting from £199,000.

Over 40% of the development is priced below £250,000 – but even so, the one-bed flats sold for between £310,000 to £315,00, compared with the London average of £350,000 to £450,000, depending on location.

The Galliard development was described by the developers as London’s largest new homes development for first-time buyers and first-time investors.

First people in the queue were Grasyna Morawska and her two children Monika and Radich, both in their thirties. Monika, currently renting, was hoping to buy.

The family had previously missed out on another recent Galliard launch in Hayes, Middlesex, where the flats sold within four hours.