SYDNEY • All 391 apartments offered by Lend Lease Group at a project in Sydney were snapped up in just four hours last Saturday, indicating demand for inner-city homes remains buoyant despite looming oversupply.

More than 400 potential buyers turned up in Darling Square, a development on the western edge of Sydney's central business district, for the apartments that were priced from A$630,000 (S$625,000) for a studio to A$3.5 million for a three-bedroom penthouse, Lend Lease said in a statement.

The sell-out at the project, the final stage of Lend Lease's 1,500-apartment development, comes amid renewed investor confidence after a regulatory clampdown led to stiffer lending standards for landlords.

About 47 per cent of new home loans were to investors in March, the highest in seven months, according to government data.

The nation's biggest lenders reduced their mortgage rates after the central bank cut its benchmark earlier this month to 1.75 per cent.

Lend Lease experienced "strong demand" from Australian buyers for the project, it said in an e-mail , without elaborating.

Though owner-occupiers accounted for two-thirds of the demand when the first two stages were sold, it was too early to determine the ratio for the latest stage, the company said.

The demand for the homes comes as 34,300 new apartments are due to be completed in the next year, with the number set to more than double to 81,696 in the next 24 months as soaring home prices led to a building boom, according to research firm CoreLogic.

The Darling Square precinct is due to be completed in 2019. The A$3.4 billion project will house 4,200 residents, according to Lend Lease.

BLOOMBERG