Forget flipping houses: Here’s how much flipping offices can net

The practice is most popular in Hong Kong as the real estate industry is trying to side-step government efforts to curtail the prices of homes

(Credit: Brian Sterling, Pixabay)
(Credit: Brian Sterling, Pixabay)

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.

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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