A major property development in Belfast’s Titanic Quarter is set to be Northern Ireland’s first build-to-rent scheme, with hopes it will revitalise the facilities expected of future rentals throughout the region going forward.
The controversial Loftlines project is continuing at pace, with the first tenants expected to move in within the next few weeks. The wider development is made up of 778 apartments across three blocks, and is a joint venture between Lacuna Developments and Watkin Jones.
The build to rent element of the development is backed by a £150m investment from Legal & General, and includes 627 one, two, and three bedroom homes on the site. It also features a wide range of facilities and amenities, including a concierge service, gym, pet washing facilities, private dining rooms, and podcasting studios.
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It’s expected that properties available as part of the built to rent development will be available from this summer. The first properties to be completed as part of Loftlines will be 81 social homes at Dargan House, owned and managed by Clanmil Housing Association, through an investment of £18.6m, with the first tenants moving in weeks from now.
Speaking to Belfast Live, Head of Operations and Asset Management at Legal & General, Nisha Kerai, gave us a taster of what can be expected at the build to rent site.
She said: “Build to rent should really be called build for renters, because that’s essentially what we try to do. It’s a professionally managed rental community. We thought about all the inconveniences of renting and how we might rectify that for a purpose-built offering for renters.
“For example, at Loftlines we have work from home spaces. You may be in a one bedroom apartment as a couple and need a little bit of space, so having a spillover without having to add that second bedroom to your rental load for the month would be helpful for lots of people now working from home.
“We try to include a gym in all of our communities, and having the convenience and ease of being able to work out on your doorstep without having to think about the commute, I think those things all add to the community aspect. We have things like a concierge service, so there are staff on site, if you need maintenance done, there’s someone there to help, you don’t have to wait a week for someone to arrive.”
Tenancies that will be offered at the site range from six months to five years, with Nisha saying flexibility is key. As for the pricing, she said that has not yet been finalised, but promised it will be “competitive” based on current prices within Belfast.
“From a tenancy perspective, we like the idea of flexible living. Life changes and life happens, if you’re tied into a one-year contract it can be cumbersome to come out of that,” Nisha said.
“You don’t want your life decisions to be based on a tenancy agreement you signed. We offer anything from a six month to a five year tenancy. We do have that flexibility for people to leave, and we like to track the reasons for leaving as well to make sure that they’re not leaving for anything that we’re doing incorrectly or that there might be areas for us to improve.
“Quite often the reasons for leaving are that people are buying a home, and I’m quite happy with that because actually, while you’re renting and while you choose to rent, why not rent in a place that’s purpose-built for you, then when you’re ready or you’re expanding your family or changing city, it might be that you need to move on.
“The rental sector is largely competitively priced because it’s such a demand and supply related market, if we come in and have really expensive rents, it wouldn’t work. It will naturally be competitively priced using lots of the prices already on offer within the city.
“We’re aiming for people to see value in renting with us and seeing the ease and convenience of everything physical and service-led as being part of what they’re buying into.”
Nisha said when build to rent schemes appear in a city, they usually increase the demand for better amenities and facilities in more rental buildings. For example, in parts of England, the build to rent model has become the standard for many city centre rentals.
Unqiue amenities on offer at Loftlines include a pet washing service on the ground floor, to rinse away any muck and dirt after walks, based on demand from the rise in pet ownership. Nisha said they worked alongside the RSPCA to formulate their pet policy, including on getting guidance on the right apartment size for pet welfare.
She said they have found people who live in such BTR developments value networking and community, with the use of the communal work from home, content creator studios, and dining rooms on site exacerbating this.
“We have one or two private dining rooms on site across most assets and they’re generally booked up most weekends,” Nisha said.
“But the first day that gets booked up in the whole year is usually Christmas Day. When you’re in a rental apartment, quite often people leave and go to their family homes or bigger homes, and I love the fact that even if you’re in a one bed flat, you can host your friends or family in the building.”
Although the £175m Loftlines scheme will help alleviate Belfast’s housing shortage, while bringing more people to live in the city centre, critics have hit out and how the site will alter the city’s skyline.
Nisha said location is “a really strong indicator for us as to whether we invest or not” in developing a new site. With the Titanic Quarter becoming a growing hub, with people travelling to work here, she hopes Loftlines will work hand in hand with this.
She said: “Everything the Titanic Quarter are doing is really on par with where we would like to locate our buildings. When you look at demographics, often people who live there work within a five mile radius.
“People being able to live somewhere convenient and easy is important, but on top of that, people need somewhere to get their coffee in the morning, and they want to be able to buy their bread and milk and whatever else. So it’s about somewhere that you can live that is also convenient for work and it is also convenient for all the kind of entertainment we also need.
“In a market where global talent is flying around and looking for various cities across the world, how do we offer something that translates not only for the local community and they see value in it, but also to other talent across the world that might need to be attracted.
“I know there’s lots of progress happening with various industries coming into Belfast and I’m sure they will want both the local and global talent pools. So having the offering there really supports in delivering some of those other things, I think all of them work in harmony.”
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