Last week Belfast City Council approved two new student accommodation developments, adding 700 beds to the city's rapidly expanding student housing stock.

The first scheme, brought forward by Watkin Jones and Lacuna Developments, is a 317-bed redevelopment of The Victorian Athletic Stores building in the city centre. The ambitious plan will involve demolishing the building itself while retaining its historic façade. The new block will then be built behind it.

The second scheme was proposed by UniCiti, and after receiving an initial rejection the developer has now been given the green light to proceed. A partner in the company, Paul WIlkinson, had this to say of the 380-bed project "Belfast is a great city and this is a further step in the normalisation of its city centre. Even following recent approvals - including our project at York Street - Belfast is still lagging far behind (in student accommodation)."

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