Homes for Scotland has announced the appointment of experts in housing finance from the world renowned Cambridge Centre for Housing & Planning Research and LSE London.

The appointments will assist a sector-led group to identify and attract new sources of investment to help expand Scotland's rental sector, Housing News has reported.

An estimated 465,000 new homes will be needed in Scotland by 2035 in order to cope with expected housing demand. The expert project team, which is headed by Homes for Scotland and supported by the Scottish Government, Scottish Development International and construction Scotland, believes that the targeting of pension funds and other institutions could help deliver new, high quality, sustainable homes at significant scale, protecting jobs and stimulating activity in the home building sector.

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Homes for Scotland Chief Executive, Philip Hogg said: "The rental sector has a key role to play in meeting Scotland's diverse housing needs but, given continuing economic constraints, we need to look at ways we can attract additional finance to help increase housing investment.

"To do this effectively, we first need to fully understand the needs of investors and develop an approach that will attract them to the Scottish residential market. This is what the team from the Cambridge Centre for Housing & Planning Research and LSE London will be assisting us with.

"Both centres of excellence and world renowned in their own right, they bring together a range of specialist skills, knowledge and experience from two of the institutions most directly involved in current research on the rented sector and financial models, both in the UK and internationally."

Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has said the industry-led project will look at ways to attract additional finance into the house-building sector by targeting pension funds and other institutions.

(JP/CD)