Lee Jong Suk Earned S$2.3mil By Restoring (And Then Selling) An Abandoned Building

Just about every famous Korean celeb owns a building (or two) in Seoul, with many choosing to buy properties in swanky areas such as Gangnam and Cheongdamdong.

Model-turned-actor Lee Jong Suk is no exception. His purchase, however, raised a few eyebrows back in September 2016. Rather than buying property that would guarantee him with bountiful financial returns, he decided to fork out 3.9bil won (S$4.5mil) for an abandoned building in Sinsa-dong.

The location wasn’t ideal, but the star had just the solution for it. He turned the building into a cafe-restaurant, which he named 89Mansion. It's said that the 30-year-old star had taken inspiration from his birth year (1989) when naming the project, which houses a cafe on the first floor and a western-style restaurant on the second.

Sadly, Jong Suk decided to sell the building after the COVID-19 pandemic caused business to plummet, and he reportedly made a tidy profit from the sale. According to reports, he sold 89Mansion for 5.9bil won (S$6.8mil), which is S$2.3mil more than how much he bought it for four years ago.