Property developers in Irish cities nursing empty blocks or plots with the potential for high–density housing, but scratching their heads wondering from where the demand for developed property will come, might care to take a look at an innovation currently taking shape in the centre of Belfast. The 12-storey 48-apartment M Building on Montgomery Street will be home to the city’s first pop-up apartments – apartments sold fully furnished, in this case with customized furniture provided by a Portadown company, Terry Furniture. The scheme is being launched today. The building, sample apartments and facilities are pictured here.
The apartments are reported to be 350 sq ft which is pretty small but the space seems well utilized. There’s a shower room (or “wet-room”) rather than a bathroom, there isn’t a separate bedroom but a “bed pod” which just about accommodates a double bed within its footprint though there is under-bed storage; there is some compensation with a large built-in flat screen TV at the foot of the bed. The main living area provides a fitted kitchen, dining table and built-in sofa. The décor is described as “funky” (in the good sense). Estate agents BTW Cairns entice us with the claim that “if you have a suitcase and yourself, you’re ready to move in”
Elsewhere in the building there’s a communal laundry room (which avoids the need for facilities in the tiny apartments), a communal roof garden and a coffee shop.
Prices start from just under GBP 80,000 (€92,000). With a sale price of over €250 psf the apartments are not cheap by current Dublin standards but if you deduct the value of the customized furniture and take account of the designed use of space, then bargain-hunters may be more impressed. The annual service charges are estimated at GBP 695 (€800) per apartment.
For developers, there is the attraction of a wide market able to afford the modest price tag which might see demand from students (or their parents), buy-to-letters, those looking for a pied-a-terre, or traditional buyers on the bottom-rung of the property ladder. There are a couple of businesses in the laundry room and coffee shop, both with a ready market from the building’s occupants. There is also the possibility of generating ongoing service charges.
The building is being developed by Alan Fraser, son of well-known developer Fred Fraser who died in 2008 and is scheduled for completion in late 2012/2013
NAMA Wine Lake 
NWL: I think Japan have something on these lines.That is you actually lease a type of coffin to have a nights kip in.Doubt if anyone “down here” would be interested but you never know. 350sq.feet mmmm!
@SPO, no the pop-up apartment is a different concept to what I think you’re describing – pod hotels in Tokyo? 350 sq ft of well-designed space is certainly habitable for one or even two people. I’ve certainly seen 200 sq ft studio apartments with creative variants of fold-away bedding. In the case of the M Building in Belfast the small apartments are supported with a coffee shop and a roof garden. So a totally different concept to Japanese pod hotels.
Fraser must be confident as he has already bought (for cash) two other city centre sites in Belfast and submitted plans.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-13193923
However I think, as you suggest these still look expensive. The average price of an apartment in Belfast is now £126k compared to £213k at peak (UU/ BoI quarterly survey). There is continued downward pressure on the supply side as a load of specific performance cases work through the High Court. This will ultimately lead to more ”priced to sell’ apartments coming on to the market. Take for example the James Clow building at Belfast docks by my estimate 1 in 5, maybe even 1 in 4, apartments which were agreed for sale are the subject of a specific performance case.