Castlebrooke Reveals Plans for 15-Storey Co-Living Tower Beside Ulster University in Belfast City Centre
Developer Castlebrooke has unveiled proposals for a 15-storey co-living tower at 81-87 Academy Street in Belfast city centre, adjacent to the Ulster University campus, as part of an ambitious regeneration strategy for a key site between North Street and Donegall Street that could ultimately deliver close to 1,000 homes in a variety of tenures.
Background
The Academy Street site has a long and complicated planning history that reflects the broader challenges of delivering large-scale residential development in Belfast city centre. Castlebrooke, the developer previously associated with the ambitious but stalled Tribeca regeneration scheme in the Cathedral Quarter, acquired the Academy Street property in late 2019 and subsequently secured planning permission for a 16-storey, 105-unit build-to-rent tower in 2021. That permission, however, was never implemented, and it is now approaching its expiry date in November 2026.
The site sits in one of the most strategically significant locations in Belfast city centre, immediately adjacent to the Ulster University Belfast campus, which underwent a £250 million expansion to accommodate more than 15,000 staff and students. The university's arrival in the Cathedral Quarter has transformed the area's character and created significant demand for student and young professional accommodation in the immediate vicinity. Castlebrooke's new proposals are explicitly designed to respond to that demand, shifting from the build-to-rent model of the 2021 permission to a co-living format that emphasises shared communal amenities alongside private living quarters.
Co-living, which functions similarly to high-specification student accommodation but is open to young professionals and other residents, has become an increasingly common development typology in major UK and Irish cities. Belfast has been slower than Dublin, London, and Manchester to embrace the model, partly because of planning policy uncertainty and partly because of concerns about the quality of accommodation it delivers. The Castlebrooke proposal will test whether the city's planning authorities are prepared to support the format at scale.
Key Developments
The new proposal features a 15-storey tower housing approximately 150 units, each comprising private living quarters supported by shared communal spaces including workspaces, social areas, lounges, and amenity facilities. The co-living model is designed to appeal to young professionals, postgraduate students, and others who prioritise location and community over the size of their private space. The Academy Street site's proximity to Ulster University, the Cathedral Quarter, and Belfast city centre's growing hospitality and technology employment base makes it well-suited to this demographic.
Castlebrooke has scheduled a public consultation event at The Mac arts centre on 26 August 2026, at which the proposals will be presented to local residents, businesses, and community organisations. An online feedback portal will be available between 26 August and 25 September, allowing those unable to attend in person to submit their views. The consultation is a pre-application community consultation, meaning that the formal planning application has not yet been submitted and the proposals may be modified in response to feedback received.
The Academy Street tower is part of a broader residential and hotel-led strategy for the land owned by Castlebrooke between North Street and Donegall Street. The company's wider plans for the area include a mix of co-living, private rental, affordable, and social housing, potentially totalling nearly 1,000 homes across multiple phases of development. If delivered in full, the scheme would represent one of the most significant additions to Belfast's city centre residential stock in a generation.
Why It Matters
Belfast city centre has a chronic shortage of residential accommodation, a problem that has worsened as the city's population has grown and as the Ulster University campus has brought thousands of additional students and staff into the area. The absence of sufficient city centre housing pushes residents into suburban areas, increasing car dependency and undermining the vibrancy of the city centre outside business hours. Co-living developments, whatever their limitations, can deliver residential units at a density and speed that traditional apartment development cannot match, and the Academy Street site's location makes it an obvious candidate for high-density residential use. The broader Castlebrooke regeneration strategy, if it proceeds, could transform a part of the city centre that has remained underdeveloped for decades despite its proximity to the Cathedral Quarter and the university campus.
Local Impact
The Academy Street site sits at the heart of a neighbourhood that has been transformed by the Ulster University campus development. The arrival of the university has brought new cafes, restaurants, and cultural venues to the area, and the student population has animated streets that were previously quiet outside business hours. A 15-storey residential tower on the site would add further density to the area and could support additional retail and hospitality at ground floor level. Belfast City Council's planning committee will scrutinise the proposals carefully, particularly in relation to the building's height, its relationship to neighbouring properties, and the quality of the co-living accommodation it proposes to deliver. Disability and accessibility advocates will also be watching closely to ensure that the communal amenities are fully accessible to all residents.
What's Next
The public consultation event at The Mac on 26 August will be the first opportunity for the community to engage formally with the proposals. Following the consultation period, Castlebrooke is expected to submit a formal planning application to Belfast City Council in late 2026 or early 2027. The application will be assessed against the Belfast Local Development Plan and relevant planning policy statements, with a decision expected within the statutory timeframe of approximately six months from submission. If approved, construction could begin in 2028, with the tower potentially completing in 2030.
