Extreme real estate marketing-- no more!

Last October I had written about a Hong Kong real estate developer who markets a 40 storeys buildings as an 88-storeys one by skipping certain "inauspicious floor numbers" (the 4s and 13) and pumping up the auspicious ones (the 8s).  The following link can refresh your memory:

http://kenlaifengshui.blogspot.com/2009/10/extreme-real-estate-marketing-with.html

In order to protect the gullible billionaires and wealthy pandas from China (who tend to buy expensive real estates), the Hong Kong Government has just issued the following new law regarding the labeling of floor numbers:
1.  no jumping or skipping of floor numbers (except below)
2.  only floor number with 4, 13 and last digit is 4 can be skipped.

The law will be effective from September 1, 2010.  This means a builder can only legally skip 4th, 13th, 14th or any number ending with 4, but not skipping any number starting with 4.   Therefore, new building with missing 40th to 49th floors will not be seen again after 9/1/2010.  Builders are out of luck to arbitarily skipping bad numbers or adding hot-selling floor numbers.

The number 4 sounds like "death" in Chinese.  Some "smart" masters think they can consider 4 as the academic and romance star used in the Flying Star system.  This may block the negative vibes or phobia-- hopefully. 

Certain Feng Shui schools use floor number to calculate if a particular floor is "in luck" or matching the magnetic profile of the residents.  An "artificial" floor number probably will not cut it and requires the actual floor number to do the calculation.


Ken Lai

"Practical Date-Selection Methods (incl. XKDG) w/ 13 hr. video
"Practical Imperial Qi-men-Dun-Jia" w/ 10 hr. video
"Daoist Talismans for Feng Shui & Blessing" v.2 w/ 24 hr video
"Practical Door Feng Shui for Wealth" w/ 3 hr. video
"4-Pillars Forecasting Bootcamp" with 12 hr. video

http://www.kenlaifengshui.com/
http://kenlaifengshui.blogspot.com/

Extreme real estate marketing with numerology

At US$9100 per sq. ft., Hong Kong's Tian-hui Skyscraper (天匯) is the most expensive real estate in the world.

The building is 40 storeys high-- but it has an 88th floor at the highest level! What is going on?

In western societies, the number 13 is considered inauspicious, so some builders have deliberately "skipped" the 13th floor for their buildings. Donald Trump's Trump Tower has done that. For the Chinese, the number 4 sounds like "death", so some buidings will have no 4th, 14th, 40th and 44th floors.

If you go to any China-town, you will see many cars with license plates like "888", "168", "118" and the likes. Properties with "8" number can also be sold at higher prices. Chinese like the number 8 because it sounds like "prosperity" or "getting rich".

Tian-hui Skyscaper is 40 storeys high with 34 residential floors. The followings are the floor number assignments:
*1- 6th floor (commercial/parking)
*8 - 12th floor (5 floors): no 13 and 14th
*15- 23rd floor (9 floors): no 24th
*25- 33rd floor (9 floors): no 34th
*35- 39th floor (9 floors): no 40- 59th
*60- 61 floor (2 floor): no 62nd
*63rd floor (no 64-65th)
*66th floor (no 67th)
*68th floor (no 69-87, jumps to 88th)
*88th floor

This is the most blatant and haphazard floor numbering to attract buyers in history.

Some local consumer groups complain that the real estate developer misleads the public on the numbering of the floors for financial gains. Local politicans criticize the Hong Kong government of failing to regulate the industry. The "4th Uncle", nickname of the developer, said, "Buyers are delighted with the floor numbers!"

Whoever can afford US$9100 per sq. ft. or US$56M for a 6200 sq. ft. unit in the building should not be too stupid.

Incidentially, the height of the building is 152 meters. "152" sounds like "not easy to maintain the #1 position" in the local Cantonese dialect. In terms of Feng Shui, 5-2 combination means disaster and major sickness or even death! Fortunately the "1" mitigates the negative effects of 5-2 a little bit.

Ken Lai

"Practical Date-Selection Methods (incl. XKDG) w/ 12 hr. video
"Practical Imperial Qi-men-Dun-Jia" w/ 10 hr. video
"Daoist Talismans for Feng Shui & Blessing" v.2 w/ 24 hr video
"Practical Door Feng Shui for Wealth" w/ 3 hr. video
"4-Pillars Forecasting Bootcamp" with 12 hr. video

http://www.kenlaifengshui.com
http://kenlaifengshui.blogspot.com

"Let's kill the number 4!"

A few days ago, the Hai-Kou city of Hai-nan Island of China, has announced that they will no longer use the number 4 for their car license plate registrations.

The officials maintain that citizen does not like the number four.

"Four" sounds "si" in Chinese. It also sounds like "death" in Chinese too.

Superstition? It is all about "Yi-tou", a Chinese term that is difficult to translate into English. It is something like "building up a premonition"--- in this case, an inauspicious premonition-- to see a number that reminds you of death.

The word "death" can also mean failure in Chinese.

This is similar to westerners' dislike of the number 13.

The Tramp Tower, if I remember right, has no 13th floor. Similar thing found in some buildings in Hong Kong or China, there is no 4th or 14th floor. It is harder to sell units in the 4th and 14th floor of a building.

In the case of 14th floor, the meaning is even worse-- it sounds like "guaranteed death" (or doomed!) in Chinese sound.

On the other hand, the number 7 which is regarded lucky in the west, is not that lucky in Chinese custom.

"7" is a unit of counting for the number of days that a person had died. We have "the first 7" to mean someone had died 7 days (with a special ceremony). At the 49th days (4 x 7) there will be another ceremony for the departed.

Here is a little known secret about the number 7--- house street address with the number 7 (e.g.: xxx7) or the numbers of the a street number total 7 (e.g. 124= 1+2+4 =7) , has high probability of being haunted or found with ghost inside the house.



Ken Lai
http://www.kenlaifengshui.com
http://www.flickr.com/photos/10429370@N05/