WILL TEMPLE, Feng shui fear
hit home sales. , The Daily Telegraph (Sydney, Australia), 07-07-2001,
pp 018.
HOMEOWNERS and developers are
spending up to $40,000 redesigning properties to create the right feng
shui to lure superstitious buyers. Renovations, including moving doors,
walls and windows, and levelling out sloping surfaces are among the changes
being recommended to canny vendors.
And in some constructions builders
have even been asked to replace the unlucky feng shui house number "4"
with 3a.
Real estate agents said yesterday
local developers were becoming more mindful of the 2000-year-old Chinese
concept, especially in suburbs like Haymarket, Hurstville and Chatswood
with high numbers of Asian buyers.
Malcolm Gunning, from Malcolm
Gunning Commercial Real Estate, Hurstville, said poor feng shui in properties
was a stumbling block for agents trying to sell to Asian buyers.
"If you have, for example,
444 you are up the creek without a canoe, " Mr Gunning said. "[But] most
Feng shui is commonsense. One of the things is they don't like having
a door which opens directly to the living room because there's no privacy."
He said he had recently lost
a sale purely because a unit was number "4".
Meriton spokesman Ross Kocass
said the designers of the World Tower apartments in the city had considered
dropping all numbers with four from the building plan.
"Generally speaking Asians
won't buy on the fourth floor, number four or 22 which adds up to four.
It's something we took into account, but at the end of the day we are
building to suit the entire market place."
Wai Lee, whose company Feng
Shui Remedies and Accessories has been operating for 13 years, said she
was recruited at least four times a week by people wanting to design alterations.
Ms Lee said one family recently
spent $40,000 changing their home to help attract Asian buyers.
She said in 13 years in the
industry she had seen at least four buyers pull out of sales because of
bad feng shui.
In business the concept has
been embraced by the likes of the ANZ Bank, Star City casino, Wentworthville
Leagues Club and a number of high profile publishing companies hoping
to improve productivity and create a calmer atmosphere.
Yesterday feng shui consultant
Colin Bissett said many companies were reluctant to admit they used the
concept. "They are probably worried about being ridiculed," Mr Bissett,
who runs his own business in Cronulla, said.
"They are worried that people
will see it as `hocus pocus' or `earth magic',"
Australian feng shui master
Gahle Atherton was asked to work on "The Toaster" at East Circular Quay
and regularly works as a feng shui building "doctor".
"People want to feel comfortable
because we are so bloody stressed out in our jobs and lives," Ms Atherton
said. "The majority of people work in crappy offices yet they are expected
to go there and produce good results."
For believers, feng shui involves
manipulating chi, said to be the metaphysical life force permeating the
universe. Good chi is supposed to attract calm and healing while bad chi
wreaks havoc.
But a spokesman from the Department
of Fair Trading yesterday warned the practice was "definitely buyer beware".
* Feng shui is the art of
positioning physical objects in environmental locations to stimulate
wellness, wealth and happiness. The words translate to "wind and water"
* Renovations include removing
walls, relocating doors and windows, and levelling out sloping surfaces
* The number four is considered
unlucky and it has been replaced on some houses
* Properties facing T-intersections
and doors opening directly to a living room are also considered unlucky.
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