A real estate purchase is not a normal expense (on the income statement) the way paying employees is. Assuming it's a cash purchase, it's a balance sheet transfer from cash asset to a real-estate asset. If debt financing is used to pay for it, while the interest expenses would appear on the income statement, the loan itself would also show up on the balance sheet as a debt. In short, a building purchase has minimal to no impact on profits (i.e. the net income on the income statement) and if purchased with debt, minimal impact to the cash flow statement.