Belfast Homes and Mortgages
Liam Mackle@liamfmackle
The idea
I think Belfast is set up for a decade of rising home values: it's cheap next to London and Dublin, has a strong educated workforce, and keeps pulling jobs out of London, while a sewer bottleneck chokes new building supply just as demand grows. Since there's no direct way to buy Belfast property, I built around it with UK mortgage lenders, a slice of builders and suppliers who'd benefit once water infrastructure funding unlocks new building, and UK and Ireland funds for broader exposure. It's spread across many names with a modest cash buffer, held for years rather than traded on headlines.
What it owns
- These banks hold the home loans across Belfast and the UK, so they gain as property values rise and borrowing grows. · NatWest Group plcIt owns Ulster Bank in Northern Ireland, giving direct exposure to Belfast mortgages through a major UK lender., Lloyds Banking Group plcIt is the largest mortgage lender in the UK, so rising home values in places like Belfast make its loan book safer and larger., Barclays plcIt is a major UK high street lender with a large mortgage book and has back office operations that can relocate to cheaper cities like Belfast., Banco Santander S.A.It runs one of the largest mortgage books in the UK through its British subsidiary, so it gains when UK home values, including in Northern Ireland, rise.53%
- These companies win when infrastructure funding lifts the sewer bottleneck and new homes can finally be built across Northern Ireland. · CRH plcIt makes cement, aggregates and building products from an Irish base, so it benefits when infrastructure funding lifts building constraints in Northern Ireland., iShares MSCI United Kingdom Small-Cap ETFIt holds smaller UK companies including housebuilders and building suppliers that cannot be bought individually on a US exchange.22%
- These funds own Irish and UK banks and housebuilders that do not trade on a US exchange individually. · iShares MSCI Ireland ETFIt owns Irish banks that lend in Northern Ireland plus Irish builders working on both sides of the border, capturing Belfast growth relative to Dublin., iShares MSCI United Kingdom ETFIt holds the largest UK companies including the major mortgage lenders in this take and provides steady exposure to UK economic growth as ballast.17%
- Cash8%