Feng Shui Property Audit — FAQ

Common questions about DaoShu Energy's feng shui property audit — what it covers, how it works, and what it does and does not claim.

What is a feng shui property audit?

A feng shui property audit is a structured cultural-reference analysis of the relationship between a home and the people who live in it. DaoShu looks through three lenses — feng shui (the property's environment, orientation, and formations), personal energy (the occupants themselves), and spatial-temporal energy (time and space) — to analyse and balance that relationship, then presents the findings as a report. It is a cultural study, not medical, financial, or property advice.

How does DaoShu Energy analyse a property?

You provide an address and a floor plan. Combining its three lenses — feng shui, personal energy, and spatial-temporal energy — DaoShu maps the surrounding environment, determines the building's orientation, reviews the interior layout, and reads the relationship between the home and its occupants. The result is a structured report covering exterior, orientation, and interior findings.

Is the analysis automated or done by a person?

The standard report is generated by the analysis system. DaoShu Energy also offers an optional 1-on-1 cultural consultation in which a human specialist reviews a property with you. The two are separate products.

What are sha formations (形煞)?

Sha formations are environmental or layout configurations that traditional feng shui pays attention to — for example a road pointing straight at a home, or a staircase through the centre of a house. DaoShu Energy maintains a glossary of the exterior and interior formations it looks for.

Does feng shui affect property value?

DaoShu Energy does not make claims about property prices or investment outcomes. A feng shui audit is a cultural-reference perspective on a home's environment and layout; any purchase or financial decision remains entirely your own.

Should I check feng shui before buying a home?

Many buyers in Australia, New Zealand and beyond like to understand a property's feng shui as one cultural perspective among the many factors they weigh. DaoShu Energy provides that perspective in a clear, structured report so you can consider it alongside your other priorities.

What are the five elements in feng shui?

The feng shui five elements are wood, fire, earth, metal, and water. Traditional feng shui treats them as five qualities of energy that generate and counter one another, and uses them as a vocabulary to describe balance in a home. DaoShu Energy references the five elements when it describes a formation and the traditional direction used to balance it.

What should I check with feng shui when buying a house?

When buying a house, traditional feng shui first looks at the environment around it (how roads, water, and neighbouring structures approach), then its orientation (sitting and facing direction), then the interior layout. The environment and orientation matter most at purchase because, unlike interiors, they cannot be changed later. DaoShu Energy presents all three as one structured cultural-reference perspective alongside your other priorities.

How much does a feng shui audit cost?

DaoShu Energy offers a free tier and paid options; current prices and what each includes are shown on the pricing page. A separate optional 1-on-1 cultural consultation with a specialist is priced individually. Please check the pricing page for the latest details.

How is a property's facing direction determined?

A property's facing direction is usually taken from its main entrance or principal open outlook, with the sitting direction opposite. DaoShu Energy establishes this orientation axis from the address, maps, and floor plan together rather than a single source, because a small error in the facing direction shifts the whole reading.

Which countries and regions do you cover?

DaoShu Energy serves properties across Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Malaysia, the United States, Canada, and China, with an English and a Simplified Chinese interface. Most of its clients are Chinese-speaking buyers and homeowners living overseas.

Is my address and floor plan kept private?

DaoShu Energy handles your data in line with its published privacy policy, including Australian Privacy Principles compliance and disclosure of any overseas processing. See the privacy policy for full details on collection, use, and your access and correction rights.

In the Southern Hemisphere, should feng shui directions be reversed?

This is the single most contested question among Chinese communities in Australia and New Zealand, and traditional schools genuinely disagree. One view holds that because the sun tracks through the northern sky here, the seasonal and directional associations should be mirrored; another holds that the compass directions themselves are fixed and nothing should change. DaoShu Energy takes an explicit position rather than leaving it ambiguous: it states in each report which convention the reading is built on, and applies a Southern-Hemisphere coordinate treatment consistently rather than mixing conventions between sections. A reading is a cultural-reference perspective, not a factual claim about the physical world.

I live in Australia / New Zealand / Singapore / Malaysia — can a property be read remotely?

Yes. A DaoShu Energy audit works from an address and a floor plan, so it does not require anyone to attend the property. The surrounding environment is read from maps and imagery, the orientation axis is established from the address, maps, and plan together, and the interior is read from the floor plan. This is how most overseas clients use it — including on properties they are still considering and have only inspected once.

Can an HDB flat or a condominium be audited, not just a landed house?

Apartments and HDB flats are audited the same way, though the reading emphasises different things. For a landed house, much of the attention goes to the land — slope, driveway, how the street approaches. For a flat, that is replaced by the unit itself: the level, the aspect, whether the front door lines up straight with a window or balcony door, whether it faces a neighbour's door, and what the outlook meets across the gap between blocks. This is the most common form of housing among Chinese communities in Singapore and Malaysia, and among apartment buyers in Sydney, Melbourne, and Auckland.

Western-style homes have no entry foyer, an open-plan kitchen, and a garage that opens into the house. How does traditional feng shui read those?

These are the three things overseas Chinese buyers ask about most, because the traditional vocabulary was formed around a different house. Traditional practice does not require a foyer to exist — it looks at what the front door opens onto, and an entrance opening directly onto a large glazed rear wall is read as the Through Hall (穿堂) alignment. An open-plan kitchen brings the stove into the living area rather than a closed room, so its position within the plan is read rather than the room boundary. An internal garage door means the everyday entrance is not the formal front door, which changes which opening a reading treats as the main entry. DaoShu Energy names each of these explicitly in the report rather than forcing a Western plan into a layout it was never drawn as.

Who should overseas Chinese buyers ask about feng shui — someone back home, or someone local?

Distance matters less than two other things. The first is whether the housing is familiar: a sloping block in Sydney, an HDB flat at the end of a corridor, a two-storey build entered through the garage, and an open-plan kitchen are not the plans the traditional vocabulary was written around, and each has to be read as drawn. The second is whether the reading states the convention it is built on — below the equator especially, since traditional schools genuinely disagree about mirroring directions. DaoShu Energy sets out both of these openly on its site so you can check them before ordering anything.

How does a remote audit compare with someone attending the property?

A remote audit reads the environment from maps and imagery, the orientation axis from the address, maps, and plan together, and the interior from the floor plan — so it supports the environment and orientation layers, the two that cannot be changed once you own the property, particularly well. What it cannot see is the interior as built rather than as drawn, furniture and how rooms are actually used, very recent changes to the surroundings, and anything you register with your body such as noise, damp, or afternoon light. Attending adds most for a home you already own and plan to renovate.

What do I need to provide, and what makes a reading tighter?

A full street address and a floor plan are the whole input. A legible plan with a scale and a north arrow supports a tighter reading than a photo of an agent's brochure, and a full address supports one that a suburb name cannot. It also helps to say whether the household enters through the garage rather than the front door, since that changes which opening the reading treats as the main entrance. Where an input is missing or ambiguous, the assumption used is stated in the report rather than quietly chosen.

Will the report tell me whether to buy the property?

No. A report itemises what traditional feng shui pays attention to at a property and describes the traditional direction used to balance each item; it does not give a verdict, recommend for or against a purchase, or say anything about price, rental return, or investment outcomes. It is one cultural-reference perspective to weigh alongside location, condition, budget, and everything else, and the decision remains entirely yours.

Is the report available in Chinese?

Yes. The interface and the report are both available in Simplified Chinese and in English, and you can switch language on the report itself. Traditional feng shui terms are given in Chinese with a plain-language explanation alongside, so a report can be shared with family members who read either language.

Why overseas Chinese families use DaoShu Energy — the problem, what you receive, and what this service does not do →

Cultural reference: This article is a cultural-reference explanation based on traditional Chinese feng shui (a form of metaphysical cultural study). It is not medical, financial, investment, or property advice.