Buying in Belfast city centre and Titanic Quarter

What you'll find

Apartment blocks in Titanic Quarter and along the River Lagan, newer blocks around the Cathedral Quarter and the edges of the centre, and flats in converted warehouses, offices and older commercial buildings. A growing number of purpose-built rental blocks sit alongside them, but those are let rather than sold.

Who buys here

First-time buyers and young professionals who want to walk to work, investors buying to let, and downsizers swapping a house and garden for a lift and a concierge. Grand Central Station and Ulster University's city-centre campus add to rental demand.

Mortgage points to note

• Lease and service charges. Lenders want a long lease left at the end of the mortgage term, and they count service charges in what you can afford. Ask the agent for the lease length, the ground rent and the last two years of service charge bills before you offer.
• Cladding and fire safety. Some blocks need an EWS1 form or other fire-safety evidence before a lender will value a flat. Where a building has outstanding works, mortgages can be very hard to get until they are done. Your solicitor and the managing agent should be able to say where things stand.
• New-build flats. Many lenders want a bigger deposit on a new-build flat than on a house, often 15% rather than 5%. Some also limit how many flats they will lend on in a single block.
• Small or unusual flats. Studios below a certain floor area, flats above bars or restaurants, and very high floors all cut the lender list. None is impossible; all need a broker who knows which lenders say yes.
• Buy-to-let. The rent has to cover the mortgage by a set margin at a stressed rate, and service charges eat into the yield. Read the buy-to-let guide.

Nearby

See also South Belfast, East Belfast and North Belfast.