Also in: 中文 · Bahasa Melayu · Bahasa Indonesia
A floor plan tells you more than a show unit. Show units are styled to hide awkward corners; the plan shows you exactly where the doors, walls and beams are. These are the layout points I look at with clients, both for daily living and for the feng shui objections that come up when you resell.
At the front door
- Door facing another unit’s door or the lift. Common in high-rise corridors and disliked by many buyers. It also means less privacy every time the door opens.
- A straight line from the main door to a window or back door. Feng shui says energy “rushes through”; practically, you get no entrance space and the whole home is on show from the corridor.
- A toilet door visible from the entrance. One of the most common objections. Check the plan, not the photos.
Kitchen and toilets
- Kitchen right at the entrance or in the middle of the home. Many buyers prefer it towards the back. Cooking smells in the living room are the practical problem.
- Toilets stacked above the kitchen or a bedroom in duplex or landed homes: disliked for feng shui reasons and a real risk if pipes ever leak.
- No wet kitchen or yard. For families who cook, a dry kitchen only can be a deal-breaker. Check where the washing machine and drying area go.
Bedrooms
- Beams over the bed position. Feng shui avoids sleeping under a beam; practically, it limits where the bed can go. Check the beam lines on the plan.
- Rooms that cannot fit a queen bed with walking space on both sides. Measure from the plan; many “bedrooms” in compact units are really studies.
- Odd angles and sharp corners. Triangular corners waste space and are disliked as “poison arrows”.
The whole layout
- Long corridors inside the unit. You pay per square foot for space you cannot use.
- Living room as a walkway. If the path from the door to the kitchen or bedrooms cuts across the living room, it is hard to furnish.
- Irregular shapes. A regular, square or rectangular layout is easier to furnish, rent and resell.
How to use this list
No unit is perfect, and one or two of these points rarely matter if the price is right. The aim is to know them before you sign, so you can compare like with like and negotiate with your eyes open.
Send me the floor plan of the unit you are considering and I will go through it with you, alongside the recorded prices for that layout.
Sources: StarProperty, “Understanding Feng Shui when buying a house”, May 2018; StarProperty, “Common taboos that affect properties”, Jan 2018; J.B.H. Yap and K.C. Lum, “Feng Shui principles and the Malaysian housing market”, Property Management, 2020
Jason Lim, REN 84424, IQI Realty Sdn. Bhd. E (1) 1584/6. Feng shui is a belief system, not a building standard; this article explains how it affects buyers and resale, and is general information, not advice.