London 2012 Olympics: The Games are coming, so where is the housing boom? Some properties near the Olympic Park are demanding up to £4,000 a week, such as a two-bedroom penthouse apartment in Stratford. However, can this surge in demand for East London property last? And is the Olympics really driving sharp increases in house prices? The growth in rents is a repeat of what happened during the Royal Wedding, when many Londoners travelled abroad to escape the event and leased out their property to overseas visitors. Also, the growth in house prices can be at least partly attributed to the boom in the wider London market, which has consistently outperformed the rest of the UK. Indeed, some parts of East London have underperformed the rest of England and Wales. In Stratford itself, which has been turned into a building site by the Olympics, prices are up just 13pc. In the past year, half of the 14 postal regions close to the Olympic Park have recorded a fall in values. Bethnal Green properties fell 5.2pc, compared with a national average reduction of 0.3pc. The organisers of London 2012 desperately hope there will be a surge in demand for property in East London. The regeneration of the area, particularly Stratford, was one of the core ambitions behind the bid proposal to the International Olympic Committee in 2005. However, there remains concerns about whether people will actually want to live in the area and whether businesses, who will support the jobs for residents, can be attracted to East London. A collection of property developers are betting hundreds of millions of pounds that they can attract homebuyers and businesses. Australian developer Westfield has already opened Westfield Stratford City shopping centre, but is also planning office and residential developments on the adjacent site. Meanwhile, Lend Lease and London & Continental Railways are developing 4m sq ft of offices and 350 homes, the development arm of Ikea, Inter Ikea, has proposed 1,200 homes and up to 500,000 sq ft of commercial space at a 26-acre site just 500 metres south of the Olympic Park, while Delancey and Qatari Diar have paid £557m to take control of the Olympic Village after the Games. Telford Homes, the listed housebuilder, has developed property in East London for years and has a number of sites close to the Olympic Park. Jon Di-Stefano, chief executive, said: "The London market has remained strong and East London will continue to benefit from regeneration and transport improvements, with the Olympics providing an increased focus on the region in 2012." The investment in new infrastructure is one of the main reasons why developers are targeting Stratford. The area already has significant transport links, but the Olympics will bring a new park, new schools and leisure facilities. Another primary reason is that selling prices on properties in East London remain 22pc below the London average, according to the research by Lloyds. The average selling price is £268,884, compared with £342,551 for London overall. This suggests there is the potential for strong growth in values "The Olympic Park will change the perception of this part of London, establishing it as an attractive family housing location with great leisure amenities," says Katie Kopec, director at property agent Jones Lang LaSalle. So far the East of London has witnessed huge residential investment in high-rise one or two-bed apartments. What has been missing is the social infrastructure to support family housing - schools, health and leisure - all of which will be in place. Yolande Barnes, head of Savills residential research, dismisses the claim that there has been an Olympic-fuelled surge in house prices, but says there is likely to be benefits for the property market after London 2012. "I don't think there has been an 'Olympic boom" in the Stratford property market," she stated. Transactions in the London Borough of Newham are running among the lowest in the country - at less than 40pc of their former average levels. It is difficult to discern any price rises above and beyond the background rises in London as a whole. The real legacy will start after the Olympics. "The legacy will effectively be a managed 'landed estate" with an eye on long-term quality that means some localities will have the potential to rival the more prime areas of west London. This should attract newcomers who would otherwise not have considered the location previously. According to Barnes, an improvement in the local environment could not just attract families to Stratford, but also wealthy overseas investors. "In the longer term it is possible that we will see increasing amounts of overseas wealth flowing into the area, not just from investors buying new-build properties but also 'displaced" west Londoners taking the value of their property east and getting much more for their money," she said. If that happens, then the Government and Locog, the London 2012 organising committee, are likely to fulfil their legacy pledge to regenerate East London - even if the housing market is yet to see any real benefits.