Office-flipping is taking off in Hong Kong and New York as a reliable way to make quick–and sizable–returns.
Flipping office space is done through strata-title office transactions, wherein ownership is parceled out over several sections of a building as opposed to the entire building. With just a few floors to consider, investors are increasingly finding office-flipping to be a good way to make a quick a buck, according to Bloomberg.
Hong Kong-based investor, logistics heir Johnny Cheung Shun-yee, made about $115 million by flipping two floors of the city’s 346-meter skyscraper called The Center over nine months, according to reports.
The value of strata-title office transactions since 2013 in Hong Kong is nearly $40 billion–the most worldwide–while New York’s office flipping transactions come in second globally with a value of nearly $32 billion in the same time period.
The only other American city to make the top-ten list of office flipping metro areas was Chicago with a transaction value of just over $4 billion since 2013. [Bloomberg]—Erin Hudson