Plans have been lodged for the second phase of a restoration project to bring locally listed buildings on the edge of Birmingham city centre back to life as student accommodation.

Property group Benacre is aiming to convert and extend 96-104 Bristol Street to create 122 bedrooms and two ground floor commercial units.

It follows on from the first phase of the scheme, called Bristol Street Townhouses, which saw Benacre create 81 bedrooms at 74-94 Bristol Street and a row of units thriving with independent business.

CRM operates this first phase and said in a report it "could have been let twice over" such was the demand by students in Birmingham.

It achieved 100 per cent occupancy during the first 18 months of operation and was fully let within weeks of it being completed in July 2013.

The report said this pattern of uptake was repeated during the summer of 2014 with CRM receiving 20 to 30 calls a day enquiring about availability during the August clearing process.

It added: "The site is well located, being within walking distance of three universities and a short bus or cycle ride from the University of Birmingham campus.

"The requirement for additional student accommodation on the site is already proven however CRM has advised that a greater variety of the types of individual accommodation units would help to meet the specific requirements of students.

"As such, phase two will include cluster units, studios with individual or shared cooking facilities, and duplex units as well as other variants of twin and double occupancy rooms."

The location benefits from its proximity to New Street station, Bullring and other city centre amenities and would benefit the aesthetics of the area following the news this month that Tesco had dropped its long-running plan to redevelop the derelict Monaco House next door.

The proposal is the latest in a long line of projects to create student accommodation in Birmingham city centre and its suburbs and the fourth story published by the Post just this month.

Suffolk-based Benacre is also behind a scheme to create 323 studios and 7,530 sq ft of commercial space in a ten-storey tower on the corner of Pershore Street and Upper Dean Street, close to the Wholesale Markets and Bullring.

The Post also reported in January that London-based Knightsbridge Student Housing was seeking permission to demolish a former oil factory in the Gun Quarter to build a new block of between four and ten storeys containing 534 bedrooms and a 3,510 sq ft convenience store.

And last week, news emerged that an underused office block in Hagley Road, designed by renowned city architect John Madin, could be converted into 149 studio bedrooms and a 4,305 sq ft ground floor retail unit.

Both this and the scheme at 96-104 Bristol Street have been designed by Jewellery Quarter-based architecture practice St Paul's Associates.