Belfast City Council approves multi-million pound plan for 800 homes in Titanic quarter

Belfast City Council has approved plans for 778 new homes to be built in the Titanic Quarter area of the city.

The Loft Lines development will be built on Queen's Island. The new homes will include one, two or three-bed homes, and studio apartments.

It has been named after the Belfast’s loftsmen, who planned out the life-sized plate patterns of ships on the enormous black floor of the shipyard’s mould loft, which once stood on the site of the proposed scheme.

The loftsmen were geometrists and had to be exacting, as their work was the basis for building the high-quality ships Belfast became known for.Lacuna Jones Developments said the scheme will create a mixture of "build to rent, social and affordable apartment homes".

Work is to begin in late summer 2022 with a targeted completion date of August 2025.

The plans include promises by the developers to build a one acre park, to promote green travel measures and to provide private amenity spaces for residents of the new homes.

Alex Pease, chief investment officer of Watkin Jones called it an "excellent outcome" for the city, and believed that the transformation of the brownfield site at Queen's Island would "support the people of Belfast's ambitions".

Lacuna Developments said a local contractor is expected to be given the work saying it would create a significant number of jobs.