NINE Melbourne properties worth $8.6 million are back on the market because foreign investors bought them illegally.

The property owners, including a Chinese buyer of a $2 million two-storey home in Brookfield, could face penalties of up to $135,000 or three years’ jail if they are found to have deliberately flouted foreign investment laws.

Chinese investors must also sell a luxury five-bedroom home at Berwick spanning more than 65sq m.

The stunning Caserta Drive house, bought in January 2014 for $1.6 million, sits on 8362sq m of manicured gardens complete with an in-ground pool and wine cellar.

Continuing a federal crackdown on breaches of foreign investment laws, Treasurer Scott Morrison will today announce the sale of 16 properties in Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland and Western Australia, worth more than $14 million.

In Melbourne, Chinese ­purchasers of homes in Melton ($950,000), Wantirna ($576,000) and Blackburn ($885,000) have been found to have bought them illegally.

A Malaysian owner of two properties, each worth more than $600,000, must also put them on the market.

media_camera A Chinese buyer paid $2 million for a two-storey home in Brookfield.

The purchase price of 46 residential properties divested during the past three years ­totals more than $92 million.

Since last December, foreigners who buy real estate outside the rules lose any profit from the forced sale and are hit with a penalty of 10 per cent of the purchase price.

media_camera This $885,000 house in Blackburn was bought illegally.

Mr Morrison said the latest forced sales included purchases of established residential properties without Foreign Investment Review Board approval, and purchases where changed circumstances invalidated FIRB approvals.

He said at least 25 investors had self-divested, which showed a change in behaviour.

media_camera The Chinese buyer of this Wantirna home was among those caught out.

Last year, when the Australian Taxation Office gained access to details of property sales, subdivisions, land transfers and valuations nationwide, going back 30 years, it began cross-checking the records of 11.3 million people in a bid to hunt down illegal owners.

rob.harris@news.com.au