Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate Survey Reveals Feng Shui's Importance

Furniture World News Desk on 8/19/2015

Slide from the BH&G infographic (see attached pdf file).

Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate recently conducted a real estate survey of the US market, focusing on Chinese and Chinese Americans who comprise the fastest growing segment of home buyers. As a whole, they spent an estimated $28.6 billion on residential real estate in the U.S. from April 2014 to March 2015.  

The research questioned 500 Chinese-Americans in partnership with the Asian Real Estate Association of America (AREAA) to understand the impact of the ancient design philosophy, feng shui, on this population’s home buying mindset and preferences. This research also has implications for furniture and other home furnishings purchases.

Feng shui is still a pervasive, even indispensable, design influence and lifestyle for such a large group of Americans. Some key points from the survey by Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate include:

• 86% of Chinese Americans think feng shui will play a role in a future home buying decision

• 79% would pay more for a home that follows feng shui principles. How much more? An average of 16% more!

• 75% of all Chinese-Americans have a feng shui “deal-breaker” that would keep them from purchasing a certain home, including the house being located at the end of a dead end street, having the stairs directly facing the front door and if the front and back doors are aligned.

In the home, the kitchen, bedroom and bathroom represent feng shui's health trinity.  Additional survey results and tips include:

• Its important for the kitchen to be organized and free of clutter (64%), have colors complementing each other (32%) and that the kitchen stove not being directly below the master bedroom (29%). 

• In the bedroom, avoid the bed directly facing the door (41%), place mirrors away from the bed (34%) and the ceiling should have a consistent height with no slopes (25%).

• The spatial fundamentals for the bathroom include being located away from the home’s center (28%), the toilet being located in a separate space (24%) and having a full-length mirror (23%).

• To improve your wealth and abundance, you can add a water element such as a fountain or an aquarium near your entry area; it’s Important that there’s water moving and it’s directed into your home.

• Reposition your furniture into the commanding position – in Feng Shui, the concept of the commanding position is to locate your bed, desk, stove and other major furniture in such a way that it has the most expansive view of the entry door for the particular room. You always want to be facing the door, while not directly in line of the door. 

For those considering putting their home on the market to appeal to this audience, or who sell home furnishings, Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate developed a fun infographic (attached pdf file) that focuses on 5 quick feng shui fixes, incorporating key design insights from the research and tips/images from feng shui architect Anjie Cho.