The first contract covers 39 furnished and serviced homes, with a formal lease agreement expected to follow shortly.
The wider programme spans six sites across the Highlands, Moray and Aberdeenshire, providing accommodation for SSEN and its tier one contractors, including firms such as Balfour Beatty and BAM Nuttall.
Under the arrangement, SSEN will fund work in progress on the homes, covering an estimated £70m of working capital across the programme.
Springfield will also receive a significant payment on handover, followed by monthly rental income over an initial four-year lease, with an option to extend.
The house builder will furnish, clean and service the properties, as well as cover electricity costs throughout the rental period.
At the end of the leases, around half of the homes are expected to be sold to local councils at roughly half their market value, with the discount recovered through higher rental payments during the lease.
Springfield will retain options over the remaining homes, including private sales, continued rental or disposal to private rented sector investors.
The programme forms part of SSEN’s wider commitment to help deliver 1,000 homes for workers on its multibillion-pound grid investment programme.
Springfield chief executive Innes Smith said: “We are delighted to have signed this milestone agreement under our partnership with a major energy infrastructure provider in the North of Scotland.
“This new approach to housing delivery gives us a significant payment on handover, income over the course of the multi-year lease, plus attractive options at the conclusion of the lease period.
“Now that we have established a framework for the contracts, we expect to sign build and lease agreements for further sites in the near term.”
