Student accommodation under consideration

Proposed accommodation building at Little Patrick StreetProposed accommodation building at Little Patrick StreetProposed accommodation building at Little Patrick StreetProposed accommodation building at Little Patrick Street
Proposed accommodation building at Little Patrick StreetProposed accommodation building at Little Patrick Street
Belfast will still lag behind other UK university cities even should all 16 student accommodation schemes currently on the table be granted the firm behind two applications has claimed.

As Belfast City Council prepares to reach a determination on five of the 16 proposals for private purpose built managed student accommodation tonight, one developer UniCiti says there is plenty of scope for more such schemes.

The Harrogate developer has brought forward £43m plans for managed student residences at York Street and Little Patrick Street, close to the new Ulster University campus.

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According to partner Paul Wilkinson, if all 7500 managed beds were approved it would account for just 23% of available student beds.

At this capacity, two independent reports suggest that Belfast would still lag behind other similarly sized university cities.

“When we announced our plans in August we claimed that Belfast was playing catch-up with other modern universities, where purpose built managed student accommodation is the norm.

“A study by Liverpool City Council found the typical saturation point for managed accommodation was circa 40% of all student beds in a city. This is the balancing point in demand from universities, parents, students and overseas learners for this accommodation, with proposals from developers.

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“Our proposals at York St and Little Patrick Street amount to a little more than 2% of all student beds in Belfast.”

At present, he said that despite having two large universities just 3,759 managed beds are available or approved.

“We understand that not all proposals can, or will, be approved and built.