Belfast Housing Land Availability Monitor 2023 - 2024

The summary tables detail the supply of housing for the Belfast district from 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024 and provide a snapshot of the land remaining for housing and its associated potential capacity to accommodate new homes. Cumulative totals are also provided since the council’s housing monitor was established – i.e. 1 April 2015, the date at which the Council gained statutory responsibility for planning.

3.1 Settlement Summary

Table 1 provides a breakdown of the housing supply, land availability and capacity for future housing units for each Settlement within the District, including Belfast City and the Small Settlements of Edenderry, Hannahstown and Loughview.

Belfast City is then further sub-divided into a number of settlement areas or sectors based on key designations within the prevailing development plan. These areas include Belfast City Centre, the Belfast Harbour Estate and Outer Belfast, which is defined as the area covered by the Settlement Limit of Belfast City outside of the City Centre and Harbour Area

The data within the table is divided into the following columns:

• Area Developed 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024 – the area of land in hectares (ha) developed during the current monitor year;
• Area Developed 1 April 2015 to 31 March 2024 – the cumulative area of land in hectares (ha) developed to date from 1 April 2015 (the date at which the Council gained statutory responsibility for planning);
• Units Complete 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024 – the number of dwellings completed during the current monitor year;
• Units Complete 1 April 2015 to 31 March 2024 – the cumulative total number of dwellings completed to date from 1 April 2015 (the date at which the Council gained statutory responsibility for planning);
• Available Potential (Hectares) – the area of land estimated as available for additional dwelling completions within monitored sites as at 31 March 2024; and
• Available Potential (Dwelling Units) – the estimated number of dwellings that could be accommodated on the available potential land as at 31 March 2024.

During the 2023/24 monitoring year 586 units were completed on 11.9 ha of land across the District. 344.7 ha of land remains, with potential capacity for 21,102 units. Within Belfast City, 521 units completed were within Outer Belfast, with a further 61 units completed within the City Centre. 11,323 of the available potential units are within Outer Belfast, whilst 6,632 and 3,128 potential dwelling units remain in the City Centre and Harbour Area respectively. There were 4 completions in Edenderry, no completions in Hannahstown or Loughview with a total of 19 potential dwelling units available across these three Small Settlements.

Figure 1 shows the total dwellings completed for the district from 2015/16 to present, to allow for an analysis of trends over a longer timeframe. The total number of dwellings completed in the district has decreased by 17.9% from 714 in 2022/23 to 586 in the current monitor year.

3.2 Urban Footprint Summary

Table 2 provides a breakdown of the housing supply, land availability and capacity for future housing units within Belfast City, further categorised into land within the identified ‘Urban Footprint’^{Footnote Three} or Greenfield land. This only refers to Belfast City, given that the Urban Footprint is only defined in relation to settlements with a population greater than 5,000 people. This excludes Belfast’s three Small Settlements.

In addition to the columns featured in Table 1 (as described in Section 3.1), the Units within the Urban Footprint (%) row calculates the proportion of dwellings completed within the Urban Footprint during the current monitor year and the cumulative total number of dwellings completed to date from 1 April 2015 (the date at which the Council gained statutory responsibility for planning), expressed as a percentage of the total number of dwellings completed over the respective time periods.

80.8% of the 582 units completed within Belfast City were built on land within the Urban Footprint. Of the remaining potential dwelling units, 96% are within the Urban Footprint.

Figure 2 shows the proportion of dwellings within the Urban Footprint for the district from 2015/16 to present, to allow for an analysis of trends over a longer timeframe. The proportion of dwellings completed within the Urban Footprint has decreased from 89.3% in 2022/23 to 80.8% in the current monitor year.

3.3 Land Use Zoning Summary

Table 3 provides a breakdown of the dwelling units completed by type of land use zoning within the prevailing development plan within each settlement or settlement area. The data within this table is divided into the following columns:

• Land Zoned for Housing – the number of units completed and the remaining potential units on land allocated for residential use within the prevailing development plan;
• Land Zoned for Mixed Use – the number of units completed and the remaining potential units on land zoned for mixed use development, which includes an element of residential development within key site requirements;
• All other land – the number of units completed and the remaining potential units on any other land not falling within the first two, which include non-zoned land and land zoned for non-residential uses; and
• Proportion of Zoned Land (%) – the proportion of units completed on either housing or mixed use zoned land expressed as a percentage of the total number of dwellings completed.

26.8% of the dwelling units completed during 2023/24 have been delivered on zoned land within Belfast City. The number of units completed on all other land was 429 dwellings.

Figure 3 shows the proportion of units completed for the district on both housing or mixed use zoned land expressed as a percentage of the total number of dwellings completed from 2015/16 to present. This proportion has decreased from 30.7% in 2022/23 to 26.8% in the current monitor year. Figure 4 shows the total number of units completed on all other land. This ‘windfall’ provision has decreased by 13.3% from 495 units in 2022/23 to 429 in the current monitor year.

Table 4 provides details of the capacity for future dwelling units on the same basis as Table 3. Of the remaining potential available for future dwellings, 33.5% is currently zoned for housing or mixed use. 3,481 of the available 21,102 potential dwelling units can be delivered on land zoned for housing and 3,597 units on land zoned for mixed use. In comparison, 14,024 of the remaining potential units can be provided on all other land.

Note – Hectare values may not tally due to rounding

Note – Hectare values may not tally due to rounding 

Figure 1: Total dwellings completed 2015 - 2024

Figure 2: Proportion of Dwellings Within the Urban Footprint 2015-2024

Figure 3: Proportion of Units Complete on Zoned land 2015 - 2024

Figure 4: No. of Units Complete on All Other Land 2015 - 2024

Footnotes

Footnote Three: The Urban Footprint is defined within the Regional Development Strategy 2035 as “the continuous built-up area of the settlement”. The Urban Footprint boundary was updated as part of the UCS (March, 2018) as explained in the 2017/2018 Belfast Housing Land Availability Summary Report. The 2018 Urban Footprint forms a revised baseline position for the 2017/2018 monitor period onwards.