An East Belfast landlord has had an HMO application refused at City Hall despite council officials recommending approval.
Unionist and Sinn Féin councillors at the February meeting of the Belfast City Council Planning Committee pushed through a decision to refuse a change of use from four bedroom dwelling to a four bedroom house of multiple occupancy, at Woodcot Avenue, Belfast, BT5, in the Bloomfield area. The property is a three storey residential terraced property with a two-storey rear return.
Council planning officials had recommended the application for approval, and highlighted that the 10 percent threshold for HMOs at Woodcot Avenue had not yet been reached. Approval would have made it the third HMO on the street of 111 properties.
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Houses of Multiple Occupation, also known as “house-share” residencies, which landlords lease out to three or more tenants from different addresses, have become increasingly controversial, with some arguing they have negatively affected communities and led to anti-social behaviour, in places like the Holylands and Stranmillis in South Belfast where houses are rented by undergraduates.
Applications for new HMO licences have increased in other parts of the city in recent months, notably in North Belfast, where a series of applications have been refused in the past year.
HMO licence renewal cannot be refused on the basis of overprovision of such properties in an area, but new licences can be refused on this basis.
While the council policy is that HMO’s should not account for more than 20 percent of any area of housing management, in reality many streets exceed this, with some in the Holylands reaching over 90 percent. Outside housing policy areas, as in Woodcot Avenue, the threshold is 10 percent.
At the February meeting of the Belfast City Council Planning Committee held this week, on a vote 13 elected members voted in favour of a DUP proposal to reject the application, from the DUP, UUP and Sinn Féin. Six voted against the proposal to reject, from Alliance, the Greens and the SDLP.
The application, by Paul Kennedy, was originally for a five bedroom house of multiple occupancy, but council officers believed this would not leave acceptable levels of space, and the application was amended. No statutory bodies had any objections.
The council received nine objections from third parties and the planning report said there was “significant public interest” in the application. Objectors raised concerns relating to waste collection, parking and a precedent being set for other HMOs in the area. They also raised worries about noise and antisocial behaviour and effects on property value.
An agent for the applicant said at the meeting: “The property was originally listed for sale in the summer of 2022, however it went unsold due to its poor condition. It was purchased by the applicant in August 2024.
“While the property lay derelict for two years, its condition deteriorated further. There was penetrating damp throughout, rising damp on the ground floor walls, structural issues with the rear extension and failing lintels to the front facade.
“Without the applicant's intervention addressing these issues, the property would be uninhabitable.”
He added: “The applicant is an experienced HMO investor, with six fully licensed properties and three projects currently under construction or at planning stage. Having run licensed HMOs for almost five years, they are yet to receive a complaint from a neighbour or tenant against any of their properties to the HMO Office.
“They are investing significant sums of money into run-down uninhabitable properties to bring them back on the housing market. They rent rooms to young professionals providing them an extremely high standard of living accommodation.”
DUP Councillor Sammy Douglas said: “In East Belfast, you are talking about 3,000 people wanting homes. Young married couples are living with their parents because they can’t get a house.
“There is a genuine problem about HMOs. In Templemore Avenue it has changed the whole environment, the whole nature of an area which was very much about families.
“There are a lot of families in this area (Woodcot Avenue), and there are a number of (councillors) who have been contacted by people who are saying they don’t know who is going to end up next door to them. I am unhappy about this application to be quite honest.”
Alliance Councillor Tara Brooks said: “Seeing the new (amended) layout with the internal amenity space makes a really big difference. Now that there is proper accommodation on the ground floor, I can see it is a much more comfortable situation, where I would be happy for my kids to move in. Whereas previously it looked very cramped.”
Alliance Councillor Eric Hanvey said: “HMOs were brought in to try and improve the quality of housing. It can still be rented out as a house, and four people can move in there - there is nothing to stop the landlord doing that.
“We have to be careful about this. We are demonising a certain type of house which was actually intended to be an improvement, of safer and better quality than what was previously there.”
DUP Alderman James Lawlor proposed refusing the application, on the basis there was not sufficient rear amenity space.
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