Premier Ted Baillieu must explain his role in the dispute at Phillip Island involving his planning minister Matthew Guy, the opposition says.

Mr Guy is being sued over claims he failed to follow proper planning processes and succumbed to backroom pressure from Liberal heavyweights when he backflipped over a contentious rezoning of Phillip Island farmland last year.

[Read the rest of this article...]

It's certainly not what you should be paying. So yesterday all four of the big banks finally passed on the quarter of a per cent Reserve Bank rate cut. Big deal - or not such a big deal, as the case may be.

[Read the rest of this article...]

Homeowners have received a bout of good news at year's end, with a private survey showing the first rise in capital city home values in eleven months.

[Read the rest of this article...]

A SMALL pocket of 1950s real estate on a sharp bend of the Maribyrnong River is the state's most tightly held suburb.

Home owners in Essendon West stay in the ubiquitous weatherboard Californian bungalows that line the suburb's leafy streets on average nearly 19 years, according to property research group RP Data.

[Read the rest of this article...]

A NEW suburban frontier is set to engulf once-sleepy holiday towns on the Bellarine coast.

In rezoned farm paddocks on the road to Torquay, a transformation is under way that began late in 2008 when the first section of Geelong's ring road was unveiled.

[Read the rest of this article...]

HEAVY rainfall after a decade of drought is thought to have caused cracking in the walls of hundreds of new homes in Melbourne's west, sparking calls for an overhaul of building standards from within the housing industry.

[Read the rest of this article...]

DESPITE one of the worst property slumps in two decades, many first-home buyers are finding it harder than ever to enter the market, with research showing they need at least $100,000 after tax to buy in half of Melbourne's suburbs.

[Read the rest of this article...]

When the system doesn't work, it appears dodgy builders can get away with almost anything.

JO KEIGHLEY and her family wanted a bigger house, so in 2009 they went online and found a local registered builder. The builder issued a warranty insurance certificate, the surveyor accepted it and issued a building permit, and the Keighleys signed a $122,000 contract for an extension.

[Read the rest of this article...]

Rental markets across the capital cities can be split into two broad categories - those where rents are increasing and those where rents are flat. In one camp are those cities where vacancy rates remain low while rental demand is high - consequently, rents rise. In the other camp, vacancy rates and rental demand aren't as tight, creating little upwards pressure on rents.

[Read the rest of this article...]

Banks are tightening the screws on development sites that have breached borrowing covenants, pushing more into receivership with “at least” $1 billion worth of distressed property currently for sale.

[Read the rest of this article...]