Councillors in Belfast have voted to demolish the city’s “ugliest building” – Fanum House.
A plan for four new student accommodation blocks of up to 18 stories at Great Victoria Street has been approved.
At the November monthly meeting of Belfast City Council’s Planning Committee, elected members approved the demolition of the existing buildings on the site and construction of a new purpose-built managed student accommodation development across four blocks of six to 18 stories in height, comprising 560 student rooms.
Artist’s image of the new student blocks on Great Victoria Street
The site location is at lands comprising the existing Fanum House, Norwood House and adjacent lands, at 96-110 Great Victoria Street, Belfast, BT2. The £42m plan is by development company South Bank Square.
The proposal includes 560 rooms made up of 205 studio rooms and 355 cluster rooms. There will be an associated café, communal facilities including a gym, cinema, meeting/study rooms, laundry rooms, and landscaped roof gardens.
Fanum House was formerly the Belfast headquarters for newspapers and media including the Irish Times, RTE and Sky, and has often been described as “Belfast’s ugliest building.”
The construction phase of the project is expected to generate 790 jobs and £48m in the local economy.
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There were no objections to the application by statutory consultees except NI Water.
Two letters of objection were received by the council. Objectors said there would be 500 students living within a mile radius of residents and that social housing was more urgently required in the area.
Objectors raised concerns about overlooking from rooftop terraces and said the proposal should include green spaces and trees.
The council officer planning report states: “The site is a very sustainable location within the city centre and close to transport links such as Grand Central Station and other public transport services.
“The application is supported by satisfactory evidence of need for the proposal. Following negotiations and amendments to the scheme, the proposed building is considered to be of a design appropriate to its context that will introduce active frontages and support the regeneration of the surrounding area.”
Artist’s image of the new student blocks on Great Victoria Street from Hope Street
An agent for the applicant told the Planning Committee at City Hall on Tuesday: “Fanum House has been an eyesore for too long in Belfast City Centre.
“The redevelopment of Fanum House, the purpose-built student accommodation, will create a high quality development on this under-utilised site on Great Victoria Street, which we believe will support the ongoing regeneration in the surrounding area, including proposals from those such as Kainos, QUB, and Vita to mention a few.”
He said the intention was to demolish the existing buildings early in the new year with the new development to start there soon after.
In September, Belfast’s largest ever purpose-built student accommodation scheme was approved, comprising over 1,000 bedrooms in a four-block building in the Titanic area of Belfast.
And in August, councillors agreed to an application for the erection of a 201-bed purpose-built managed student accommodation scheme and retail unit, at 41-49 Dublin Road and 3-5 Ventry Street, Belfast, BT2. The building is planned for the site of Filthy McNasty’s pub and club.
There are two nearby student accommodation buildings to the Fanum House site which are operational, Botanic Studios at 78-86 Dublin Road and Vita at 27 Bruce Street.
More student blocks are planned for the Dublin Road area, with Queen’s University having successfully applied for a new accommodation building at the old Movie House cinema site on Dublin Road. There is further student accommodation at the nearby Bradbury Place.
Fanum House on Great Victoria Street is to be demolished as part of a student housing scheme. Image: Pacemaker
In May, the council approved an 11 storey buy-to-rent apartment block suited to “young professionals” for a site across the road from Fanum House. It is currently used as a car park just behind Park House, at lands bounded by Glenalpin Street, Wellwood Street and Norwood Street, just beside Sandy Row.
Last December at Belfast City Council members unanimously refused a plan at the same site for the erection of a new 11 storey student accommodation building comprising 354 units. Both applications were by Artemis Development Ltd.
Savills Residential Research and Consultancy has estimated that as of September 2023 there were 12 fully-functional student accommodation blocks in Belfast created since 2015, with a total of 7,690 beds. In the 2021/22 academic year, the city had 42,660 students.
Student blocks only house a quarter of the student population of Belfast. To bring the full-time student to bed ratio down to 1.5, for students requiring term time accommodation nearly 5,700 new beds will be needed based on 2021/22 student numbers.
Successful student block applications this year have lessened this number, but existing or approved purpose-built managed student accommodation developments means Belfast will still be short of at least 3,000 student beds by 2030.