HOMEOWNERS face fines of up to $220,000 for underquoting their property's expected auction price, in a radical shake-up of real estate law.

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THE Australian consumer watchdog says real estate agencies involved in under-quoting and dummy bidding will be hit with fines of up to $1.1 million from January 1.

Australian Competition and Consumer Commission chairman Graeme Samuel said a new Australian Consumer Law is aimed at any businesses involved in misleading and deceptive conduct, including real estate agents.

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AN unlicensed Victorian real estate agency, its directors and its agent's representative have avoided criminal prosecution after the company agreed to forfeit $150,000 in commissions.

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A growing number of Chinese people are taking advantage of a relaxation in Australia's foreign investment laws to buy property in Melbourne.

Real estate agents in the eastern suburbs report that up to half the buyers this year have been part-time residents from China, Hong Kong or Taiwan, or Asian companies buying accommodation for their staff.

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Australian home prices have rebounded this year, almost erasing falls recorded for all of 2008 in just four months, an industry report says. Home prices in capital cities rose 2.8 per cent in the four months to April, according to real estate research firm RP Data, "virtually wiping out" 2008's 3 per cent fall.

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RISING house prices in Melbourne's most affordable suburbs have effectively wiped out the Federal Government's cash hand-outs to first home buyers, new figures show.

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IT'S time to scrap the first home owners' grants. Yes, I know all those young couples are desperate for a home … but the grants don't help. In fact, the grants have the wrong name: they should have been given a name that more accurately reflects what's been happening — they might have been called the "tradies' top-ups".

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It's a reckless soul who gets carried away with any single month's statistics, but there's another speck of light in the housing industry tunnel with today's lending finance figures and - more importantly for our banks - the price performance of the average Australian home.

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VICTORIAN home renters and small business owners could face hefty stamp duty bills under an amendment to the Duties Act being debated in State Parliament this week.

Proposed amendments to the bill will make some tenants liable for stamp duty if the property they are renting is sold during during their lease.

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AUSTRALIA has among the least affordable houses in the world, according to an international study that suggests our price "bubble" is due to burst.

A comparison of median house prices with median household incomes in Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, Britain and the United States found that Australia had the most cities in the "severely unaffordable" bracket — in which prices are more than five times incomes.

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