New £16m development will house 400 students in city centre accommodation

College Square East, previously owned by Belfast Metropolitan College, will become a new home for hundreds of students.


Student accommodation in Belfast is set to improve vastly with a landmark building in the city centre due to be renovated.

The £16m investment will convert the huge building at College Square East to the first mass student accommodation building in Northern Ireland developed by the private sector.

The building will house 400 student beds after it was sold by Belfast Metropolitan College to a Welsh construction firm for an undisclosed sum.

The construction of the new student accommodation is hoped to be completed by the 2016 academic year.

Glyn Watkin Jones, chairman of the private construction company who bought the building said that there was an “under-supply” of purpose built student accommodation in Belfast, and that the renovation will “provide a high-quality product which is currently not available for the students studying in Belfast”

He also said he was aware of “ongoing issues” in the Holylands area.

As QUB continues to grow and University of Ulster develops a new central Belfast campus, residents near the new city centre location are concerned over the new influx of students in the area.