A Brazilian government minister has tendered his resignation after getting mentioned in a corruption scandal that also involved President Michel Temer.

Government secretary Geddel Vieira Lima is alleged to have enlisted President Temer's help to pressure a cabinet colleague to approve a luxury apartment project in a preservation zone.

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The resignation serves to fuel growing allegations that Temer's inner circle has been fragrantly misusing their power, only six months after his government assumed office.

Temer is a hugely unpopular figure among the country's population and has been struggling to sell an ambitious austerity agenda that he believes will pull Brazil out of its worst recession in recent history.

His administration has been hit by one scandal after the other, although this is the first time that the President has been implicated.

"Temer's presidency has just turned six and it already looks old," wrote Fabio Zanini, a political editor for the daily newspaper Folha de S.Paulo.

"The strategy to win popular legitimacy with an economic recovery and political stability is quickly sinking for a president who was not supported by popular vote," the editorial went on to say.

The latest scandal broke out after former Culture Minister Marcelo Calero told federal police that Vieira Lima pressured him to authorize the construction of the said luxury apartment on a unit he had bought in a planned development area.

Calero also revealed that Temer invited him to the Presidential palace and asked him to find "a way out" of the normal oversight process for such a building.

"Politics has these kinds of things," Temer said, according to Calero who also resigned last week.

Lima has said that he is only stepping down to save his family from more suffering due to the allegations. The leftist Socialist and Liberty Party has pledged that it will submit a measure to congress to impeach Temer.

The motion would have to be accepted by Rodrigo Maia, speaker of the lower Chamber of Deputies, and a huge Temer ally.