Developers Mace and Canadian residential and hospitality owner operators Realstar is to begin work on a rental development in Elephant & Castle, London.

Work in Elephant and Castle is set to begin in January with 457 high quality new homes on a site owned by the Greater London Authority (GLA). This includes 278 homes for private rent with a fantastic range of amenities, due to be completed by 2018.

The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, has set a number of policies in his housing strategy to encourage institutional investors, such as pension funds and insurance companies, in the long-term rented market, to support longer term leases and more stability for tenants as well as top quality, well designed, new developments.

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The Newington Butts site, in London's zone 1, was among 670 hectares of surplus public land taken on by the Mayor in 2012, more than 85% of which has now been moved into the development pipeline. The new development will include 179 low cost homes for rent and shared ownership, being delivered by social housing provider Peabody.

The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, said: "With London's unprecedented population growth, housing supply and affordability is now our biggest challenge and we need to double the number of homes being built.

"This requires a radical rethink and it is time for new approaches like this, which not only help build more homes in the heart of the city, but also improve choice and quality for Londoners.

"Capitalising on London's undeveloped public land I want to entice more institutional investors to come forward and invest in quality homes for Londoners, boosting the economy and creating thousands of new jobs."

(CD/JP)