Cairn Homes is to pay close to €100 million for six key housing sites in the greater Dublin area to accommodate over 1,400 houses.

The sites are being acquired from Argenum Property Holdings, a joint venture between Australian investment fund Anchorage and builder Newlyn. The best known development opportunity is a three hectare site on Griffith Avenue in north Dublin. It was originally bought from the Christian Brothers and has planning for over 100 houses and apartments.

Cairn is preparing to have construction teams on three sites, beginning with Griffith Avenue because of the pent-up demand for homes in the area. Development work is also expected to begin on 290 homes on the outskirts of Ashbourne.

Cairn’s Michael Stanley said the plan was to have seven sites under construction within the next 12 months, including an apartment scheme at Hanover Quay in the south Dublin docklands.

The best located of the new Cairn sites is the former Marianella seminary at Orwell Road in Rathgar, Dublin 6, which was bought for over €40 million and is expected to accommodate around 260 homes, most of them apartments.

Cairn is the first Irish homebuilder to float on the stock market since McInerney Holdings in 1997.

News of Cairn Homes’ building schedule comes as agent CBRE reported that development land sales exceeded €350 million in the first three months of this year.

Peter Garrigan of CBRE said there had been strong activity in the land market since the beginning of the year following a bumper 2015 when sales exceeded €770m.

The list of land sales in the last quarter also included 7.48 hectares (18.4 acres) at Knockrabo, opposite Mount Anville girls school in Dublin 14, which was bought for €25 million by US equity partner Broadhaven and Irish housebuilder Maplewood Residential.

Another notable sale earlier this year was the disposal of the 51-acre Magee Barracks in Kildare for €8.2 million.