A foreign private buyer has broken the purchase record for a flat in west London by paying more than 140 million pounds (236 million U.S. dollars) for a penthouse, reported The Times Friday.

On the same day, CPC Group confirmed that a 16,000-square foot duplex Penthouse at One Hyde Park, located in west London, was recently sold, said the Guernsey-based property development company in a statement sent to Xinhua.

Global professional valuation companies have valued the finished penthouse at circa from 160 million pounds to 175 million pounds, said the company.

One Hyde Park, a luxury residential development that went on sale in 2011, has sold over two billion pounds to date. That includes residential, retail and car parking. There are four penthouses at One Hyde Park including duplex and triplex units, said CPC.

Regarding the buyer, however, the London-based newspaper reckoned that "the Eastern European, thought to be Russian or Ukrainian, bought the west London property in a transaction that will ultimately see the flat's value rise."

Britain, especially London, has seen huge capital inflow into the house market over the past years.

Figures compiled by Knight Frank, a global real estate consultancy, showed that in the two years through June 2013, foreign-born buyers made 69 percent of new-home purchases in the prime central London market, with 28 percent living outside Britain.

According to data given by Nationwide Building Society Thursday, British house prices increased at an annual rate of 10.9 percent in April. Property prices in London are now around 20 percent higher than pre-crisis peak. (1 pound = 1.69 U.S. dollars)