In what lays down a new marker for the post-crash UK property sector, a 41-storey block of apartments worth £140m has effectively sold out off-plan in just four hours.

Scenes like it have not been seen since just before the last property market meltdown.

The breath-taking rate of sale equated to £580,000 worth of sales per minute – even though the site is still a hole in the ground.

Galliard Homes’ skyscraper block Maine Tower in Canary Wharf will not be completed until 2019.

The developers said they had not seen such a phenomenal volume and fast sales rate since before the global crash.

The average purchase price of £1,200 per sq ft sets a new record for the area.

About half the buyers were foreigners, although Galliard says that some of the domestic purchasers included young first-time buyers.

Of the foreign buyers, some were from Europe, including Greece, and others from India, the Middle East and Far East.

The launch was held in a marketing suite next to the development site. One person started the queue 36 hours before the launch, and by the start there were over 150 people queueing.

The developers have held back some of the apartments – what it calls the premier and penthouse properties – from the launch, releasing 230 apartments out of 297.

Of that 230, 208 were sold within the four hours. An estimated 350-plus people went to the launch.

David Galman, sales director at Galliard Homes, said: “It’s not every day in London that a residential skyscraper virtually sells out during a launch.

“The volume and speed of sales at the Maine Tower launch was incredible and shows the confidence that buyers from both the UK and overseas currently have in the London property market.”