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A planning application has been submitted for the first student accommodation project in Belfast's Titanic Quarter.

The project would involve building four blocks of between five and nine storeys on a vacant site next to Belfast Metropolitan College.

The 385,000 sq ft development could accommodate up to 1,200 residents.

A substantial amount of student accommodation has been built in Belfast city centre over the last decade.

Those have primarily been on the northern side of the city centre to serve the new Ulster University campus.

An increasing number of projects are under way or planned for the southern part of the city, closer to Queen's University.

Queen's is due to expand its existing operations in the Titanic Quarter with a new Global Innovation Institute set to open next year.

The housing scheme is being proposed by a joint venture between Lacuna, a Northern Ireland-based developer, and the Welsh firm Watkins Jones.

Those two firms have built a substantial amount of student accommodation in the city.

A pre-application consultation exercise drew a mix of responses with concerns including potential noise impacts on residents of the nearby Arc apartments.

Positive responses included the hope that it would help lead to growth of tourism businesses in the area.