Plans formally lodged for new £250m 1,100 housing development

Plans formally lodged for new £250m 1,100 housing development

19 February 2025

FORMAL plans have been lodged for the biggest ever housing development proposed for Downpatrick.

The £250m investment will result in the construction of 1,100 homes on a huge 128 acre site which is zoned for new housing, stretching from the Saul Road across to the Ballyhornan Road.

The application was lodged last week in tandem with a detailed environmental statement.

Details of the multi-million pound proposal were unveiled last year by the CosyGroup and included is a new distributor road which is a key plank of Downpatrick’s future development blueprint.

The new homes will be built either side of what is known as the eastern distributor road which will link the Saul and Ballyhornan roads.

The road was proposed a number of years ago to help ease town centre congestion with planners insisting it should be built by developers.

The new road was first proposed a number of years ago to help ease town centre congestion with planners insisting it should be built by developers and Newry, Mourne and Down Council backing its construction.

A neighbourhood centre including retail and community facilities is included within the proposal alongside land for a new primary school, but it will only be developed subject to need and discussions with the Department of Education and Education Authority.

Demand for new homes in Downpatrick is increasing, with the land earmarked for the major housing development among the last currently available for construction. The proposed development will feature energy efficient homes fitted with PV solar panels.

CosyGroup says its proposals represent a major investment in homes and infrastructure in Downpatrick with the town’s popularity as a place to live, work and visit thriving over recent years,

The energy efficient family homes are at the core of the investment proposal with the inclusion of neighbourhood facilities designed to meet additional demand.

A series of pre-application consultation events have been held to provide people with an opportunity to view the proposals and speak with consultant architects.

Last month, St Patrick’s Golf Club said it was seeking a private site meeting with the developer and architects to examine the multi-million pound proposal in detail.

Club officials said they had concerns about the impact of the development on the seventh hole.

They claimed the hole would become “unusable” unless there was a significant revision of the present proposals, explaining that the club was “very restricted and limited” in possible options to rearrange the layout of the course. 

They also contended there would be considerable expense associated with any in-depth examination of possible layout options with no guarantee that a feasible and acceptable alternative could be identified that would also be financially viable.

The club said it could support the proposal as it currently stands and that in the absence of a major revision to the proposed layout, would “strongly object” to any related planning application and granting of planning permission. 

The club said it fully understood and appreciated that the population of Downpatrick is growing and that there was a clear need for additional residential development in the area.

The environmental statement submitted in tandem with the planning application can be viewed at Downpatrick Library between 9.30am 

and 5pm from Monday to Saturday and at Newry, Mourne and Down Council’s headquarters at the Downshire Civic Centre during normal office hours.

The document can also be viewed using the Planning NI Web Portal via the public access menu — planning register.planningsystemni.gov.uk with electronic copies available free of charge.