Thai real estate development company Supalai is investing in an Australian master-planned communities project owned by property group Mirvac.

Mirvac said it has entered a 50% joint venture with Supalai, to deliver future stages at the A$1bn Smiths Lane communities project in outer Melbourne.

Smiths Lane, situated on a 260-hectare site, is expected to house more than 7,500 residents in the next decade.

Mirvac CEO and managing director, Susan Lloyd-Hurwitz, said: “We are thrilled to be entering into a joint venture partnership with Supalai, in line with our strategy to grow our third-party capital with aligned capital partners.

“This joint venture will allow us to redeploy capital into new projects and recycle capital as part of our asset sales programme.”

Lloyd-Hurwitz said the joint venture provides Supalai with access to “high-quality Australian real estate, and we look forward to working alongside them to continue to deliver this community”.

The chairman and CEO of Supalai, Prateep Tangmatitham, said: “I’m very pleased to establish this relationship with Mirvac Group, one of Australia’s leading real estate developers, in this high-quality, high-profile residential project, and look forward to further developing our relationship in the long-term.”

Supalai entered direct investment in Australian real estate development projects in 2014 with joint venture partners. The partnership with Mirvac is Supalai’s 12th project in Australia, and its largest to date.

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