Work is underway on a £3.5 million development that consists of luxury student flats, shops, cafes and restaurants in Plymouth city centre.

The former Comet store will be demolished and replaced with a new six-storey tower consisting of high-end student accommodation targeted towards wealthy foreign students.

The purpose-built student accommodation will be able to house up to 80 students, living in large state of the art self-contained studio flats with double beds.

Aspire Student Living is anticipating that the development will be complete by September 2017.

Plymouth University has previously supported the plan saying: "The university is committed to attracting high calibre students to the region and it is looking to increase recruitment of international students as well as meeting the specific needs of postgraduate students.

"Through the development of the Comet building into student accommodation, a number of beds can be made available to postgraduate students that will meet a current demand based on their specific needs in the form of flexible accommodation contract."

Aspire Student Living, part of Pillar Land Securities, has already transformed the former Halifax building society building into apartments for foreign students.

At the start of the year it was revealed that Plymouth's student population injects £300 million into the city economy every year.