{"id":16303,"date":"2020-10-09T09:06:08","date_gmt":"2020-10-09T09:06:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/factcheckni.org\/?p=16303"},"modified":"2022-02-27T23:05:25","modified_gmt":"2022-02-27T23:05:25","slug":"are-95-or-98-of-all-households-in-the-holylands-area-of-belfast-hmos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/factcheckni.org\/topics\/economy\/are-95-or-98-of-all-households-in-the-holylands-area-of-belfast-hmos\/","title":{"rendered":"Are 95% or 98% of all households in the Holylands area of Belfast HMOs?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This claim is inaccurate. FactCheckNI has estimated that 45% of properties in the Holylands are licensed as HMOs, and Belfast City Council report a figure of 40% for the larger Botanic, Holylands and Rugby policy area.<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The chair of the <\/span>Landlords Association for Northern Ireland<\/span><\/a> (LANI), Robert Greer, claimed during <\/span>an interview<\/span><\/a> on BBC Radio Ulster\u2019s Good Morning Ulster (24\/9\/2020, starts 1:52:08, and Greer\u2019s claim at 1:58:00) that “aside from the Roma community, about 95 or 98 per cent of all households [in the Holylands] are HMOs.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Where is the Holylands? <\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The Holylands (also known as \u2018the Holyland\u2019 or \u2018the Holy Lands\u2019) is an inner-city residential area located one mile south of Belfast city centre. There is no official geographical definition of the Holylands area. Rather, it is a reference to an area where many of the streets were names after places mentioned in the Old and New Testaments, such as Jerusalem and Palestine. While it has no formal boundaries, it commonly refers to the streets enclosed to the west by Queen\u2019s University, to the south by the River Lagan, to the east by Ormeau Road and to the north by University Street. (A full list of street names is provided in the notes below.) We used this geography\u2014shown in the above map from <\/span>OpenStreetMap<\/span><\/a>\u2014for our analysis of the claim.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Administratively, the Holylands falls within the <\/span>Central Electoral Ward<\/span><\/a>, part of the <\/span>Botanic District Electoral Area (DEA)<\/span><\/a> of Belfast City Council.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Who lives in the Holylands?<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The population of the Holylands has evolved<\/span><\/a> from a largely working-class Protestant demographic to a mixture of short-term students, long-term residents and migrant families. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

While we can find no intentional survey that details the precise demographic make-up of the Holylands, <\/span>reports generally state<\/span><\/a> that \u201ca large number of students have been compacted into a relatively small area\u201d and hypothesise that the student population number is in and around 7,000.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2019, the <\/span>Housing Executive Research Unit conducted a scoping exercise<\/span><\/a> to map the specific housing needs of the Roma community in Northern Ireland. They reported that the Romanian population in Northern Ireland had increased in size from around 500 people in 2010 to upwards of 2,500 by 2016. Community development workers at the <\/span>Romanian Roma Community Association for Northern Ireland (RRCANI)<\/span><\/a> have estimated that 1,500 Romanian Roma are living in Belfast\u2014predominantly in the Holylands and Lower Ormeau area.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is an HMO?<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The definition of a House in Multiple Occupation (or HMO) was most recently updated in April 2019 with the <\/span>Houses in Multiple Occupation Act (Northern Ireland) 2016<\/span><\/a> coming into operation. Under this Act, <\/span>an HMO<\/span><\/a> is a property that is:<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n