The budget for the governments buy-to-rent fund was recently increased to £1b, up from the original budget of £200m, and the government has now released the first set of projects that will be built under the scheme.Over the last few years the UK, and London particularly has seen a sharp rise in rental costs as a result higher sale costs on property. The greater demand for rental properties has driven up the price of renting and this government funding project is expected to balance out the rental market. It is hoped that this will help commercial property developers to focus investment on properties for rent and go some way towards helping to solve the housing crisis.It is believed that the projects will produce 8,000-10,000 homes with projects including Genesis Housing Association, First Place with Together Housing Group who will be building in the north of England and Crest Nicholson. This will help ease the housing crisisHousing Minister Mark Prisk has said, “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.”The contents of this article are intended for general information purposes only and shall not be deemed to be, or constitute legal advice. We cannot accept responsibility for any loss as a result of acts or omissions taken in respect of this article. Setfords Solicitors are a national full service law firm, with commercial property solicitors in Chichester and across the country.