msbuild: .NET Core App fails to load project (.NET 4.6.1 works as expected)

I created a sample .NET Console app with the following code.

using System;
using Microsoft.Build.Evaluation;

namespace ConsoleApp25
{
    internal class Program
    {
        private static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            var buildEngine = new ProjectCollection();
            var project = buildEngine.LoadProject("<full path>\\UnitTestProject.csproj");
       }
    }
}

My project references the following 2 Nuget packages:

• Microsoft.Build
• Microsoft.Build.Utilities.Core

This gives the following exception when compiled to target .NET Core 2.0;

Microsoft.Build.Exceptions.InvalidProjectFileException
  HResult=0x80131500
  Message=The SDK 'Microsoft.NET.Sdk' specified could not be found.  d:\dd\GitHubTestAdapter\UnitTestProject\UnitTestProject.csproj
  Source=Microsoft.Build
  StackTrace:
   at Microsoft.Build.Shared.ProjectErrorUtilities.ThrowInvalidProject(String errorSubCategoryResourceName, IElementLocation elementLocation, String resourceName, Object[] args) in /_/src/Shared/ProjectErrorUtilities.cs:line 412
   at Microsoft.Build.Evaluation.Evaluator`4.ExpandAndLoadImportsFromUnescapedImportExpressionConditioned(String directoryOfImportingFile, ProjectImportElement importElement, List`1& projects, Boolean throwOnFileNotExistsError) in /_/src/Build/Evaluation/Evaluator.cs:line 2173
   at Microsoft.Build.Evaluation.Evaluator`4.ExpandAndLoadImports(String directoryOfImportingFile, ProjectImportElement importElement) in /_/src/Build/Evaluation/Evaluator.cs:line 1944
   at Microsoft.Build.Evaluation.Evaluator`4.EvaluateImportElement(String directoryOfImportingFile, ProjectImportElement importElement) in /_/src/Build/Evaluation/Evaluator.cs:line 1823
   at Microsoft.Build.Evaluation.Evaluator`4.PerformDepthFirstPass(ProjectRootElement currentProjectOrImport) in /_/src/Build/Evaluation/Evaluator.cs:line 940
   at Microsoft.Build.Evaluation.Evaluator`4.Evaluate(ILoggingService loggingService, BuildEventContext buildEventContext) in /_/src/Build/Evaluation/Evaluator.cs:line 726
   at Microsoft.Build.Evaluation.Project.Reevaluate(ILoggingService loggingServiceForEvaluation, ProjectLoadSettings loadSettings) in /_/src/Build/Definition/Project.cs:line 2752
   at Microsoft.Build.Evaluation.Project.ReevaluateIfNecessary(ILoggingService loggingServiceForEvaluation, ProjectLoadSettings loadSettings) in /_/src/Build/Definition/Project.cs:line 2719
   at Microsoft.Build.Evaluation.Project.Initialize(IDictionary`2 globalProperties, String toolsVersion, String subToolsetVersion, ProjectLoadSettings loadSettings, EvaluationContext evaluationContext) in /_/src/Build/Definition/Project.cs:line 2822
   at Microsoft.Build.Evaluation.Project..ctor(String projectFile, IDictionary`2 globalProperties, String toolsVersion, String subToolsetVersion, ProjectCollection projectCollection, ProjectLoadSettings loadSettings, EvaluationContext evaluationContext) in /_/src/Build/Definition/Project.cs:line 543
   at Microsoft.Build.Evaluation.ProjectCollection.LoadProject(String fileName, IDictionary`2 globalProperties, String toolsVersion) in /_/src/Build/Definition/ProjectCollection.cs:line 1118
   at ConsoleApp25.Program.Main(String[] args) in D:\tmp\source\repos\ConsoleApp25\ConsoleApp25\Program.cs:line 11

However it works as expected when targeting .NET 4.6.1

Any ideas?

ConsoleApp25.zip