Superstitions in the Real Estate Market

In a multicultural society such as Singapore, many of the things we do or avoid doing are influenced by superstition or beliefs passed down from generation to generation. Growing up my parents had a set of dos and don'ts that I had to execute immaculately or risk incurring irreversible repercussions upon myself - so they claim. Common ones that you may have heard of are things like not pointing at the moon, not opening umbrellas indoors, or having a good-looking spouse in the future involves finishing all the food on my plate down to the last grain of rice.

Some people might not indulge in the notion of superstitious beliefs but sometimes these things do actually get in the way of bigger things in life, such as buying a property. When we think about the main criteria for house-hunting, they are traditionally based upon having a good location, spacious homes, great views, future upsides, and most definitely it has to be affordable. But when our categorically unreserved attachment to superstitious beliefs kicks in, it will affect the decisions we make. Ask yourself this, won't you think about such things especially for a big-ticket item such as a home? Because reality is, our homes not only provide for our physical comfort, it has to also address our psychological comforts as well.

I guess you must be wondering now if these superstitions actually do affect the property market or not? Let's take a closer look at some of our data to find out more!

Happens every year during the lunar seventh month, the Hungry Ghost Festival is held in honour of the dearly departed. People tend to shun buying or selling their properties during this period as they believe that moving into a new place might invite spirits into their homes or such major life changes may render bad luck to oneself.

As you can see in the table below, traditionally new sales during the Hungry Ghost Festival would generally see lesser activities as compared to an average of the other 11 months of the year as developers do avoid pushing out new launches during that period too. Seeing the fluctuation throughout the years for the resale is no surprise as the resale market tends to be more sensitive towards the festival.

Looking at the new sale prices of the units transacted during the Hungry Ghost Festival, we notice that in 2021 there was a huge gap of 11% between that particular month versus the average of 11 months. This was a result of the majority of sales that month attributing to sales in the Outside Central Region (OCR), particularly The Watergardens at Canberra which was selling at a median price of $1,470 psf. As for the resale segment, echoing the kind of results we see in the average monthly sales volume, the prices do vary from year to year due to the market's sensitivity to the festival.

So now we know that the Hungry Ghost Festival effects predominantly impacts the resale market and developers avoid launches during that period anyway. It makes quite some sense because as a consumer myself, I would probably avoid buying or selling my house during this period just to feel at ease. Let's continue going down the list and see what are some other superstitions that affects the real estate market.

The number "4" is considered extremely inauspicious in Chinese (Cantonese) culture as it rhymes with the word "death". On the other hand, the number "8" is seen as a highly-auspicious number because it sounds like the Chinese word that means "prosperity". And these numbers affect us in our lives from choosing car plates to the money we give in red packets, and it also definitely affects buying property in terms of choosing addresses and unit numbers.

Let's take a look to see how much inauspicious numbers affect the prices of private properties. Before we dive into the data, we need to set up some parameters. We will only be taking a look at unit numbers as opposed to the floor because from our research it appears that Singaporeans are not too bothered by having a "lucky" or "unlucky" number as the floor number.

Looking at the data of both new sale and resale non-landed private homes for unlucky unit numbers, it is evident that unlucky numbers do affect the pricing of houses - with double unlucky numbers being more critical. Unlucky numbered units almost always sell at a lower price regardless of them being new sales or resales. Double unlucky numbered units can go for reduced prices of more than 20%. Are you willing to "risk your life" for a 20% discount?

Let's head over to the flipside to take a look at "lucky" number units - how do they differ from "unlucky" number ones?

People are willing to pay top dollar for unit numbers they consider lucky, especially the ones with "double lucky" numbers for their units. For new sales, in some instances, homebuyers don't mind paying almost two times more, as seen in 2010. The resale market emulates the same behaviour with homebuyers exhibiting a willingness to pay up to an additional 82.5% just for their "lucky" homes in 2014.

According to Chinese superstitions, living near cemeteries or columbariums is not such a good thing as these places harness negative energy and it might affect you adversely. Alternatively, some people might just be afraid because of all the exorcism movies they've watched while growing up.

For the two examples we will be looking at, we took the HDB blocks surrounding the cemetery and columbarium in a 250m radius - comparing them to similar unit types in the same town. Just so happens that both the areas we are surveying are older flats being built in the 1970s and 1980s.

In the case of Yin Foh Kuan Cemetery, we can see quite some significance in terms of the price of the houses near the cemetery as compared to the rest of the houses in the same district - up to a 29.9% discount.

It is the same case for properties surrounding St Theresa Columbarium with 4-room flats around the columbarium differing in price by as much as 24.5%.

It is very evident that living near cemeteries or columbariums would affect the prices of properties negatively. So if you are looking for a discounted home, and are not afraid of supernatural superstition, you can consider finding homes near final resting places.

In more recent times, there was a huge upheaval when BTO owners in Sengkang West found out that a site next to their BTO project was awarded by the Housing Board to develop a Chinese temple integrated with a columbarium. Then future residents were unhappy that it wasn't made clear to them upon purchase that a columbarium will be built beside their residences. Most of their concerns were the property losing value when eligible to be sold in the future, it goes to show how Singaporeans feel about properties near cemeteries or columbariums.

End of the day, whether superstition dictates certain aspects of the property market or not, it is still important to have property knowledge before committing to purchase. We've curated an exclusive Masterclass to empower people on how to take prudent steps in growing their property portfolio, which have helped thousands of ordinary people. The Property Wealth System is a framework developed by property experts that have decades of experience. Don't leave your property decisions to hearsay or superstition, know what you're getting into and buy with confidence!

Views expressed in this article belong to the writer(s) and do not reflect PropNex's position.