"Flipping" of properties – buying and selling real estate with a short period of time to make an easy profit – was rife in Sydney and Melbourne when prices were rising sharply.

Buy a property, give it a coat of paint and re-sell it quickly to pocket easy capital gains.

Fewer investors are "flipping" properties for easy profits as house prices cool. Credit:Louie Douvis

And, provided the property being flipped was claimed as the principal place of residence, there is no tax on profits.

Figures from researcher CoreLogic's latest Property Flipping Report show for the year to June 2017 that 7 per cent of property re-sales across the combined capitals were those flipped within two years of purchase.