UK student accommodation provider Ziggurat has bought a number of sites in Dublin's north city centre as part of a €400 million Irish expansion plan, after redeveloping the former Montrose hotel near UCD in recent years.

Among the purchased properties is a site on Dublin’s Upper Dominic St, just off Bolton Street where a 380-bed facility will be built, Ziggurat co-founder Matthew McAdden said in an interview with Newstalk.

The sites also include the former Michael H textile plant, acquired from Small Firms Association chairman AJ Noonan, and two former Arnotts car park sites controlled by developer Noel Smith.

Construction on the sites are not expected to be completed until 2019 at the earliest, Mr McAdden said.

While Ziggurat is currently seeking to sell the 192-bed Montrose facility, which it acquired at the depths of the property crash in 2012, in order to return funds to the original backers of its entry into the Irish market, it plans to construct and hold onto the new developments for the long term, Mr McAdden said.

The company’s plans to build up to 4,000 new student rooms also include developments in Cork and Galway, he said.

“At the moment in Montrose we are charging between €220 and €250 per week - that compares to a two-bed apartment costing €1,800,” he said. “That’s where we are in the Dublin market.”

He said that rents on the Cork and Galway accommodation will be set relative to the local property market when construction is completed.