The government has announced details of the first tranche of recipients of its £1 billion build-to-rent fund, reports Property Week.

The Communities and Local Government department has revealed the first 45 successful bidders, which includes eight housing associations,  that will share £700 million from the first round of the government scheme.

The 45 major private rental building projects can now go forward for final due diligence checks, ahead of the cash being released.

It marks the Government’s first steps towards its goal of creating a more balanced rental market which has seen a mix of house builders, social housing providers and contractors win project backing.

The fund is designed to give developers access to borrowing at 2.07 per cent over a five-year period for new private rented homes. It was originally set at £200 million in October, but Chancellor George Osborne announced that this would be increased to £1 billion during his March Budget speech.

In a statement this week, Housing Minister Mark Prisk said: “This government is determined to get Britain building, and the build-to-rent fund is set to help us deliver, with up to 10,000 new homes to be built from these projects.

“We’ve seen overwhelming demand for the fund, and it’s become clear that there’s a real appetite for rental investment. We want to support that, which is why we’ve made a £1 billion Budget boost to the fund.

“Now, these new projects will help us map this almost uncharted market, bringing in new blood to improve rental quality and choice, and building the new homes that this country wants and needs.”

The first Build -to-Rent winners are:

•    A2 Dominion Housing    
•    Blackswan Property     
•    Bouygues Development   
•    Bovis Homes    
•    Broomleigh Regeneration
•    Carillion-Igloo
•    Carpenter Investments  
•    CCURV LLP      
•    Chestnut Homes
•    Clearstorm     
•    Climate Energy Homes   
•    Countryside (2 schemes)
•    Crest Nicholson
•    CS Capital Partners    
•    Derwentside Homes      
•    Evenbrook Capital      
•    Genesis Housing Association    
•    Geronimo       
•    Granger
•    Greenwich Peninsula    
•    Housing Solutions      
•    Hurst Street   
•    Inland Homes   
•    Keepmoat       
•    Kier Project Investment
•    YH Residential
•    Lendlease      
•    Lovell Partnerships    
•    LPC Living     
•    Mill Group     
•    Mount Anvil    
•    Muse Developments      
•    Network Housing Group  
•    Notting Hill Housing   
•    Orbit Homes 2020       
•    Persimmon Homes
•    PlaceFirst (2 schemes)
•    Plus Dane
•    Quintain Estates
•    Regeneration
•    Relta
•    South Yorkshire Housing Association    
•    Taylor Wimpey  

The first round projects are expected to bring forward the building of up to 10,000 new private rented homes, a quarter of which will be based in London. Details of how much funding each bidder received will be announced in May.

Mayor of London, Boris Johnson added: “With London’s population expanding at record pace, we need to build around a million new homes in the next 25 years to meet demand and avert a possible housing crisis. Increasing supply in the private rented sector has a massive part to play in this.

Building new well-designed homes to rent will also lead to a more balanced rental market for Londoners, as well as providing construction jobs and stimulating growth for London’s economy by making it an even better place to live and work in.”

The government this week also confirmed the members of its new private rented sector housing taskforce.

The group, led by Stanford Mallinson founder, Andrew Stanford, will provide support and advice for developers with projects that were not successful in the first round of bidding in order to make them viable for investment in the future.

Other additional taskforce members include: Julian D’Arcy of Kirkby Capital; Johanna Embling, a former Equity Partner at Cushman & Wakefield; Tracy Hartley, a specialist asset manager at Grainger; and Dominic Martin, a Senior Analyst at EC Harris.

A second round of bidding for the remaining £300 million is expected to open later this year, and will be handled by the Homes and Communities Agency.