Getting along just fine
Glints of hope punctuate challenges in the market
Is the sparkling Victoria Square shopping development in Belfast an emblem of a new and confident Northern Ireland? Full of arching glass and sweeping lines, it screams newness, but slots nicely into the fabric of the historic city and fits alongside tourist trail gems like Donegall Square and Belfast City Hall.
Amid the doom and gloom of recession-hit UK, there are some glints of hope in Northern Ireland. Passenger numbers at George Best Belfast City Airport bucked a national trend by climbing 8 per cent in August 2009. It later claimed the Easyjet route to London Luton from its Belfast International rival. In turn, the latter is to up its game with a £10m overhaul.
There’s been some good news from the education sector too. The University of Ulster has announced major investments in both Belfast and Coleraine, while the Queen’s University has now opened the £30m Centre for Secure Internet Technologies, a beacon in Northern Ireland’s bid to be a centre of excellence in ICT. Technology investors continue to be prominent in the province – of over 700 companies in the ICT sector in Northern Ireland, more than 100 are international investors, including SAP, Fujitsu, HP, Openwave, Microsoft, Liberty IT and Northbrook Technology.
Although you’ll go a long way to find businesses enthusing about paying more tax, the fact that Northern Ireland has the same corporation tax as the rest of the UK has insulated it from the massive bump taken by the Republic of Ireland economy. Most research shows that big incentives aren’t the best way to secure long-term meaningful investment and this could be case of the tortoise beating the hare.
While it’s still a maturing economy, with drawbacks in physical infrastructure, Northern Ireland still benefits from having an affordable labour pool. It’s also one of the youngest populations in the EU. Prime office space in Belfast is also a fraction of that in most major cities.
Technical infrastructure is in place – it was the first part of the UK to boast 100 per cent broadband connectivity and has a new connection to north America and Europe available at 20 per cent below the rate paid from London or Dublin.
The deep freeze entered by the construction market has affected Northern Ireland and there remains a feeling that it could do with a banner project. The Northern Ireland Planning Appeals Commission has shelved a public inquiry into the 500,000 sq ft extension of the Sprucefield shopping centre in Lisburn, while the building of a national sports stadium to replace the run-down Windsor Park looks no closer to a resolution.
Also, the proposed extension of the Titanic Quarter in Belfast into a major financial services hub has met with objections from other developers, while even with reasonable rents, several shiny new offices in Belfast remain empty. The public sector can’t afford them and private sector demand remains low in a fragile occupier market. There’s also the tricky issue of several billion euros lent to developers by the now-nationalised Irish banks to unravel. Reports from property consultancies like CB Richard Ellis do indicate, however, that the future is brighter north of the border than it is on the south side.
Neil Tague
Assistant editor at Insider Media