In six months’ time, the annual ranking of the top 100 cities worldwide for 2026 will be published by global real estate and tourism advisory firm Resonance Consultancy. Will Belfast make the cut? The answer, sadly, is probably not.
That omission may not raise too many eyebrows across our capital city, but perhaps it should – especially when you consider that Glasgow and Birmingham were named on the 2025 list, at numbers 72 and 94 respectively.
At Belfast Chamber, we make no excuses for banging the drum for Belfast and the huge need for major investment in infrastructural improvements that will make the city centre a better place to live, work and socialise. And let’s not forget how central Belfast is to delivering regional growth – so when Belfast prospers, so does Northern Ireland.
We hear regularly from business leaders who are deeply invested in the city’s future. They believe in Belfast’s potential, but they also see first-hand the barriers that are holding it back – under-utilised public spaces, a lack of progress on regeneration projects and transport links that have further room for improvement.
While it was no surprise that London topped the Resonance Consultancy list for the 10th consecutive year, the inclusion of Glasgow and Birmingham – alongside Belfast’s continued absence – should serve as a wake-up call for all of us who care about the future of this city.
The guide analyses 28 categories broadly across liveability (rental affordability, public spaces and healthcare), loveability (nightlife, shopping and culture) and prosperity (educational attainment, connectivity and GDP per capita).
A closer look at liveability in Belfast is revealing. ‘Your home is your castle’ is a well-known phrase but, unfortunately, it is nothing but a pipe dream for 48,000 households currently on a waiting list for a social home, with about 36,000 of those deemed to be in housing stress. The most recent Programme for Government does seek to address this issue, setting a target of having started work on at least 5,850 new-build social homes across Northern Ireland by 2027 – many of which will, of course, be in Belfast.
But homes don’t just appear overnight, as the Executive discovered when it failed to meet its previous target of an additional 2,500 new social homes a year.
Housing Associations will play an integral role in delivering new homes, with these organisations having both the proven capability and capacity to do so. This represents the most economic method of delivery given that all government funding is leveraged, thereby providing more ‘bang for our buck’ than the Housing Executive itself building homes.
Indeed, Radius Housing and Clanmil Housing are currently demonstrating that active delivery, with Radius having 494 new properties under construction in Belfast – 94 of which are in the city centre – with a value of £87 million. Clanmil has nine schemes that will create 435 homes in Belfast either underway or due to start.
Eighty-one of these will be located in Titanic Quarter where residential stock is also being bolstered with the development of Loftlines, Northern Ireland’s first Build-To-Rent scheme with 627 homes being built specifically for renters.
The majority of these new-builds across Belfast city centre are social homes, and there is a clear demand for them, but we also need to see more mixed-tenure schemes emerge.
This is an objective that is clearly stated in Belfast City Council’s Local Development Plan, which provides the planning framework for the city up to 2035 to help shape the physical future of the city, and we hope to see that aim being met very soon.
Clanmil, meanwhile, has also recently been appointed as the strategic partner for the Council’s Inner North West Masterplan, which is a mixed-use, residential-led scheme in the city centre’s inner north west area, where the Ulster University campus is located, which is being delivered in partnership with the Department for Communities.
The project aims to, amongst other things, reinstate the historically lively economy of the inner north west area, promote the social and environmental benefits of city centre living, and strengthen the city centre’s urban fabric and streetscapes, while supporting and strengthening pedestrian connections within the city centre, and to and from adjoining neighbourhoods. It hopes to create 120 homes in an area in great need of regeneration and investment, and this too offers grounds for optimism.
It was hugely positive to see Graham selected by Belfast City Council in December as its long-term private sector partner to deliver £630 million residential-led, mixed-use, sustainable developments across multiple sites. Quite frankly, though, this project simply cannot progress quickly enough.
As a city, we must be open and welcoming to planning applications for new schemes and recognise that our city is in dire need of these homes. Better public spaces would support this objective, too, which is another area that we as a Chamber have been vocal on.
Further positivity came in the shape of City Quays Gardens officially opening after being in development for over a year. This is a vibrant and attractive public green space into which Belfast Harbour invested its own capital, something which the Harbour should be strongly commended for.
This follows the green light being given earlier this year for plans to transform Belfast’s Cathedral Gardens into a unique civic space with a public plaza to hold small events, an urban forest/woodland garden area and a play zone for children with digital art displays.
These initiatives significantly enhance the environment while making the area a much more attractive and appealing place to live in.
While these developments offer hope, the stark reality is that, without effective investment in critical infrastructure, Belfast will not be able to close the gap on fellow UK cities such as Birmingham and Glasgow.
It’s not just about aesthetics. Infrastructure is the foundation of a city’s economic competitiveness. It shapes how people experience the place, whether they are workers commuting into the city centre, families living in it or visitors coming to explore what Belfast has to offer.
Cities like Birmingham and Glasgow are reaping the benefits of efficient planning, straight-forward governance, long-term thinking and decisive public investment.
They are creating cleaner, greener, more connected urban environments. Belfast must do the same – and the longer we wait, the more we will regress.