It was brought to my attention that a prestigious, palatial home in Melbourne recently sold for $39 million. It was touted in some local media to have had a feng shui master involved with the property, but I have not found out to what extent. It’s always gratifying for me to know that feng shui principles are being used in noteworthy architecture and it’s also confirmation that people do in fact take feng shui seriously.

However, the only thing revealed was that the feng shui master insisted the selling price be listed as $1,111,111.  In reality, it was sold for 30 times the listed price. Those familiar with the neighborhood would know instantly that this was a fake number.   Like that old saying, “If you have to ask the price, you can’t afford it.”

The price listing of the house might be the least important concern; however, I had my own little “aha” moment months after I bought my own current home.  After negotiating the price with the seller, I bought it for $1,365,000.  I happened to notice when reviewing documents the funny coincidence that the numerical part of my address is 13651.   Maybe there really is something to this numerology stuff.

A quick remote review of the house, supplied with photos, video, a floor plan and aerial views revealed to me a number of surprising Feng Shui flaws.  I’ll cover some of those flaws in this article, but want to state on the outset that the feng shui master involved in the project may have not had the final say in the design or landscaping features. If a feng shui master is hired, you may wonder why their advice would ultimately not be a priority. That is another topic entirely. In my own practice, I have had some clients pay me quite a bit for my opinion on various properties or design plans and then not following through. Sometimes it is because others involved don’t value feng shui as much as the person who hired me.

This Melbourne house is listed on-line as being a “wellness” house, with advanced air and water purification systems.  No doubt, there are aspects to this home which are retreat-like, but some realtors have been guilty of claiming a house has good feng shui as a marketing tool more than anything else.

This house is situated on a relatively small parcel of land, on a corner. I would think that for the selling price that a house this size would have more surrounding land and privacy. But from a feng shui perspective, the first exterior influence I noticed is the existence of a church on the same block. A basic Feng Shui principle is to live further away from a church.  A church close by is not as bad as a cemetery, but churches can attract yin spirits and when given a choice, it’s better to live further away. This might seem ironic, but the yin features of a church are not ideal for the “Yang House.”

The house has a non-obvious orientation.  The main door side (west) is rather hidden by a wall and trees, somewhat nondescript. The driveway side is on the south. With photos and the floor plan lay-out, it becomes more likely that the house faces north, where the major views and light come in.  In fact, we could say that the house does not have a conventional back yard on an obvious sitting side.

In relation to directions, this house is very close to being an Out of Trigram house.  Whether we consider the street side as facing (265 degrees) or the North view side (355 degrees), in both cases the house is very close to a borderline compass reading (within 2.5 degrees).

The Out of Trigram House is one of the most troubling houses to deal with and I try to steer my clients away from such a house.  That being said, we don’t know if the feng shui master was even asked if this was a good piece of land to build on. It would have been difficult and awkward to have angled this house on the lot, just to avoid an iffy compass reading.  Then again, the Feng Shui master involved might not be using Flying Star Feng Shui or he/she may not be well versed in the Out of Trigram House type.   I did check to see if the magnetic declination of the house has changed since it was built (2017) and it has not budged since then.

If I relate to the house as facing North-2 range (most light and views), the flying star chart reveals a house type that was called Double Sitting back when built and up until 2024. This is a house type that should have water on the sitting (back) side which would be the south side.  This is the garage opening side where the exteriors on that side don’t reveal any water features.  Post 2024, it would actually be a bad location for outside water, so who knows how much this house has been modified, if at all, since 2017.  The house is about 16,000 square feet. The larger the home, the more water is needed.  All elemental remedies need to be to-scale with the size of the house.

There is a pool which straddles the northwest corner of the property. Back in 2017, north and northwest were neutral areas for outside water and now post 2024, water to the north is one of the best locations (until 2044).  Having a large body of water outside of a “5 water dragon” can be an irritant and this one makes me wonder if the Feng Shui master knows that and/or recommended the water in that location.  Water in a bad location can create a variety of problems for occupants, ranging in health, relationships or career.  When I recommend a pool location, I hope to plan 20-40 years out.

There are other schools of Feng Shui besides the Flying Star School. The Eight Mansion School does not factor in the construction Period of the structure, but it has elaborate “Water Dragon” formulas for where to place outside bodies of water, like pools, ponds, or man-made streams, including the direction of the water flow.

There is also a pond to the southwest of the house, wrapping over to the entrance in the west.  There may have been a very intentional plan to usher the Qi toward the front door, which would be the 1-6 stars inside.  Some of that effort is muted by the high wall on that side, blocking some of the Qi flow.

Additionally, we can assume that the garage is used as the most frequent entrance and exit to the house.   Some practitioners may feel the main formal entrance is of utmost importance, but not so much if it’s only opened for guests. This same main door is directly across from a window (bad), a set of stairs (bad), and the stairs have no risers (bad).  Maybe a “bad” becomes a “good” since stairs with no risers will disperse the Qi flow.

This house has many rooms, including six bedrooms, a study, gallery, massage room, home theater, gym, wine cellar, library, game room and two kitchenettes. They cannot all be in good areas of the floor plan, but we prioritize the primary bedroom since the owner spends a third of their life there.  According to the North-2 facing Period 8 chart, the primary bedroom lands in the north sector with the unseen 7-9 stars.  For those familiar with Flying Star Feng Shui, the 9 star is a major wealth star now in Period 9. But the 7 “mountain dragon,” can be challenging for health and relationships, to include financial loss, theft and betrayals. The primary bedroom level might have been better off flipped with the master bedroom in the south 8-8 stars (still B+ energy).

No doubt, this is a stunning home architecturally, although it is darkish and with many hard surfaces and angles.  It’s not a warm and cozy home which you might expect of one that is supposed to have passed the Feng Shui Test. I don’t know how long there will be listings and photos of it on-line, but for the time being you can see more by searching 12 St Georges Road, Toorak (Australia).

Author: Kartar Diamond

Company: Feng Shui Solutions ®

From the Architecture and Design Blog Series