{"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 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 (The <\/span>previous definition<\/span><\/a> of an HMO was \u201ca house occupied by more than 2 qualifying persons, being persons who are not all of the same family\u201d.)<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n As part of the 2016 Act, <\/span>local councils took over responsibility for HMOs<\/span><\/a> from the Northern Ireland Housing Executive. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n Note that <\/span>according to Housing Advice Northern Ireland<\/span><\/a>, social housing properties are not considered to be HMOs:<\/span> \u201cA property will not be a HMO if \u2026 it is managed by the Housing Executive or a housing association.\u201d The South Belfast Partnership, in its January 2020 study, <\/span>Holyland Transition<\/span><\/a>, indicated that in 2011, 17.5% of housing in South Belfast (defining South Belfast as Ballynafeigh, Blackstaff, Botanic, Finaghy, Malone, Musgrave, Rosetta, Shaftesbury, Stranmillis, Upper Malone and Windsor) is made up of social housing, reflecting the presence of Choice Housing, Oaklee Housing, Clanmill, and others.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n Who holds figures for the number of HMOs in the Holylands?<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n The area of Botanic, Holylands, and Rugby is a defined \u201cPolicy Area\u201d (HMO 2\/22), as designated in the <\/span>HMO Subject Plan for Belfast City Council Area 2015<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n The geography of this area is shown in the following map provided by the Belfast City Council:<\/span> Source: <\/span>HMO Subject Plan for Belfast City Council Area 2015, Map No. 3\u2014South Belfast (East)<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n The Planning Service of Northern Ireland used to maintain a database of HMOs in conjunction with the Housing Executive. In December 2008, <\/span>the Planning Service reported that<\/span><\/a> the 64% percent of homes were HMOs in the area of Botanic, Holylands and Rugby Policy Area (HMO 2\/22). FactCheckNI wrote to the Planning and Building Control department at Belfast City Council, which responded with further information. According to figures produced on 17 September 2020, there are 1,061 licensed HMO properties within this policy area, with a further 197 HMO properties going through the license renewal process. These more recent figures exclude social housing properties, which are <\/span>exempt from having to be licensed as HMOs<\/span><\/a>.<\/span>
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Table 1: The number and percentage of HMOs by Policy Area HMO 2\/22 (12\/2008):<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n