More than £53m is to be spent building 500 affordable homes across Norfolk and Suffolk over the next two years.
The consortium behind the project has been awarded £11m of government funding via the Housing Corporation.
The remaining £42m will come from the e2 consortium partners - Orwell Housing Association, Havebury Housing Partnership and Saffron Housing Trust.
Orwell Housing Association's Stephen Javes said the £11m grant meant they could build urgently-needed new homes.
He said the government funding allowed the housing associations to charge affordable rather than market rents for the new homes, most of which would be built by 2008.
"We are particularly delighted to have been identified as a preferred partner by the Housing Corporation because it recognises our ability as an organisation to provide affordable housing solutions for the people of East Anglia.
"We see this as just the beginning," Mr Javes said.