Procurement bosses at Hyde plan to cut the specialists they use from 60 firms to just a dozen on a new £500m programme of works.
They hope the move to pare down firms will save £50m over 10 years across its 48,000 home estate in London, the South East and East Midlands.
It is the second housing association to decide to work with far fewer contrators on frameworks.
In March, another housing association Circle said that it would re-procure work worth £1.2bn and cut its contractors from 200 to just five in a bid to save £120m.
The trend is a blow to local specialist firms who thought the tide was turning in their favour following the high profile collapses of Connaught and Rok, which exposed the dangers of relying too heavily on one firm.
Hyde Group is due to issue a formal invitation to tender for its £500m work programme next Wednesday in the Official Journal of the European Union.
Bidders will be invited to an open day on 12 September with contracts expected to be awarded by the middle of 2013.
