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Housing for 1,000 students set for Titanic Quarter

Getty Images Titanic Quarter in Belfast. Sea in the foreground. To the right, a partially visible view of a large, yellow crane, and left across the frame, a brick building, the Titanic Belfast building and industrial buildings.Getty Images
The project will provide housing for more than 1,000 students in the Titanic Quarter in Belfast

Planning permission has been granted for the first student accommodation project in Belfast’s Titanic Quarter.

The project will provide housing for just over 1,000 students on a site next to Belfast Metropolitan College.

The developers, Watkin Jones-Lacuna, are among the most prolific builders of student housing in the city.

Their other projects include the redevelopment of the Athletic Stores building on Queen Street.

'Real demand for student accommodation'

Anthony Best, Managing Director of Lacuna Developments, said the development was responding to demand from students at universities and higher education colleges.

"Belfast is a great city, with a growing knowledge economy that needs students and graduates living here to be successful," he said.

WATKIN JONES GROUP AND LACUNA DEVELOPMENTS An artist's impression of the student accommodation building with students sitting outside and showing pedestrians walking by and cyclists passingWATKIN JONES GROUP AND LACUNA DEVELOPMENTS
The Titanic Quarter Student Village will be accessed via the Queen's Road

A substantial amount of student accommodation has been built in Belfast city centre over the past decade.

Those have primarily been on the northern side of the city centre to serve the new Ulster University campus.

An increasing number of projects are under way or planned for southern part of the city, closer to Queen's University.

Getty Images A view across the Lagan of the Titanic Quarter including the Titanic museum, the SSE Arena and the Harland and Wolff cranesGetty Images
Titanic Quarter skyline

Queens is due to expand its existing operations in the Titanic Quarter with a new Global Innovation Institute set to open next year.

A pre-application consultation exercise for the housing scheme drew a mix of responses with concerns including potential noise impacts on residents of the nearby Arc apartments.

Positive responses included the hope that it would help lead to growth of tourism businesses in the area.

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