Woolworths with US hardware giant Lowe’s launched the first of its highly-anticipated Masters Home Improvement outlets in Melbourne’s western suburbs

THERE’S a sad day each year when home owners are delivered what might be their most misunderstood bill – the council rates notice.

Council rates are calculated using your property’s valuation and a rate in the dollar your council has budgeted as your contribution. Statewide (Victoria), the average rates bill for all properties -residential, commercial, industrial or farming – was $1135 two years ago.

AS TEACHERS and the cashed-up education unions bully for more pay, the cash-strapped Baillieu government has been forced to sell two prime assets including the landmark former Kangan TAFE in Gwynne Street Richmond, expected to one day make way for a  $200-million plus mixed use village.

In a busy week for school sales and listings, the state has reaped $9.25 million for the 7637 square metre inner-east site which will cease operating as a Kangan next March.

The Business 1 zoned property (aerial pic, right) is heralded as the largest commercial development site to sell in Melbourne this year measured by value – but it’s estimated the property could have been worth more than $20 million should it have sold with a more flexible zoning allowing for residential redevelopment.

A Newhaven property developed in 1928 as the St Paul’s Boys Home is being sold by The Knox School. The

Radio broadcaster Steve Price and his partner, Wendy Black, are understood to have purchased a terrace near South Yarra’s Royal

BEHIND the scenes, Channel Nine has been busy lodging applications to effectively rebuild the quartet of neighbouring terraces that are the subject of heavily marketed TV show The Block, which airs from June 20.

Nine agreed to buy the four rundown single-storey homes at 37-43 Cameron Street for $3.6 million soon after they hit the market last year. Settlement occurred in February, at about the same time new planning applications were lodged (and subsequently approved) by the City of Yarra council.

Eleven months ago, the terraces were offered for sale with an adjoining 446 square metre parcel of land (addressed 31 – 35 Cameron Street) which Nine is currently using to store materials and machinery.

The owners of an Essendon shopping centre have proposed a residential-based mixed-use complex with three towers – the tallest rising

Box Hill Standard Brickworks could be replaced with townhouses next year. The 7.2 hectare property at the end of Federation

Part of Malvern’s Stoningon estate in Malvern – once the Governor General’s residence and which many Melburnians believe should never

Adidas will relocate from one Mulgrave office to another. The sports product supplier has signed a 3600 square metre lease

GlaxoSmithKline is selling a chunk of land beside the prominent Boronia site held for years as its national headquarters. The

Powercor is selling a former State Electricity Commission facility in Brooklyn, 10 kilometres west of Melbourne. The 20 hectare block

CHARTER Hall Office REIT has signed the Australian Tax Office to renew its lease at a prominent Moonee Ponds office tower.

The ATO has occupied the entire 22,000 square metre, seven level building (pictured, right) since it was developed in 1991. The office is near the Puckle Street retail strip, identified by previous governments as a prime activity centre in the north-west.

ATO’s lease was due to expire in 2013. It has now extended that until February 2020.

A former Geelong Grammar campus is for sale. With 47 rooms, the c1857 Gothic building at 55 Maud Street could

Singer and radio commentator Denis Walter with wife Annette have listed a historic Geelong home. The Federation Tandara, at the

The new owners of the Nightingale Electrics store at 420 Spencer Street have applied for a bigger denser building. The

ACTORS Reg Gorman and Judith Roberts have sold their two-bedroom apartment in St Kilda East’s quaint Ardoch development for $740,000.

The renovated, ground-floor unit at 8 Ardoch Avenue is in one of Ardoch’s historic buildings, built in the 1920s. The oldest building in the unique estate dates to the 19th century, while newer buildings were developed on the site in the mid 1990s.

Ardoch centres around a grassy expanse, and its residents share a sauna, gymnasium and indoor pool. The property was once used as an orphanage, and a school.

Historic Yarraville home Huntly is for lease. In Willis Street, near the Sun Theatre and train station, the recently renovated

Con Andronis, founder and director of event management company Atlantic Group and Clamms Seafood – is selling an Albert Park