You don't need a master at an HDB viewing. Most of what a fengshui audit scores is visible from the void deck, the corridor, and the front door — if you know what to look for. This is the checklist Zhai's own methodology runs first, with each item tagged by evidence grade, so you know which findings are measurable, which are worth a cheap experiment, and which are heritage.
How to read the tags. Do this = research-backed or directly measurable — act on it. Worth trying = low-cost, plausible mechanism — test it. Tradition says = classical doctrine without empirical support — weigh it only if the belief matters to you or your future buyer.
| Check | What to look for | Tag |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Road rush (路冲) | Does a road, driveway or carpark lane point straight at the block — especially at your stack? T-junction-facing homes sell at measurable discounts in peer-reviewed studies across Asia, the US and Europe; traffic noise and headlight sweep are real. | Do this |
| 2. What the unit faces | Open field, water, greenery or low-rise in front = unobstructed outlook (明堂). A wall of another block 20 m away = none. Outlook differences are priced into resale and affect daylight measurably. | Do this |
| 3. Sharp edges aimed at the unit | A neighbouring block's corner edge pointing directly at your windows (尖角煞). Classical sha; the measurable parts are wind-channelling and visual oppression at close range. Matters at close distance, ignorable beyond ~50 m. | Worth trying |
| 4. West-facing main windows | In Singapore the brutal sun is east–west, not north–south. A west-facing living room or master bedroom takes 3–6 pm heat year-round — measurable on your aircon bill. | Do this |
| 5. Bin centre, substation, multi-storey carpark exhaust | Smell, noise, and pest exposure are environmental facts long before they are qi. Walk the block perimeter once. | Do this |
| Check | What to look for | Tag |
|---|---|---|
| 6. Door facing neighbour's door (对门煞) | Classical doctrine reads facing doors as clashing households. The measurable part is privacy: you open your door into their sightline daily. Curable with a screen or plants either side. | Tradition says |
| 7. Door beside the lift or stairwell | Footfall, lift-motor hum, and door-clatter are real and permanent. Tradition also dislikes it; you don't need tradition to hear it. | Do this |
| 8. End-of-corridor unit | Tradition flags the corridor's rushing qi terminating at your door (回风). In practice, end units trade less pass-by traffic for more façade exposure. Net effect depends on the block — judge it on site. | Worth trying |
| Check | What to look for | Tag |
|---|---|---|
| 9. Through-hall draft (穿堂煞) | Main door opens onto a straight line to the balcony or a big window — classical "wealth flows straight through". The real trade-off: that same line is your best cross-ventilation. Zhai's read: keep the airflow, break the sightline with furniture if the exposure bothers you. | Worth trying |
| 10. Beam over the bed | Classical pressure-sha. The defensible mechanism is psychological — a visually heavy mass over your head measurably affects perceived comfort for some sleepers. Move the bed or fur the ceiling; both are cheap. | Worth trying |
| 11. Toilet door facing the kitchen or dining area | Hygiene-coded doctrine from an era before sanitary plumbing. The modern residue is smell and sightline — both fixable with a closed door and ventilation. | Tradition says |
| 12. The number on the door | 4th floor, unit numbers with 4, missing 13th floors: no structural content at all — but the price effect is real in Singapore and Hong Kong transactions. If you don't share the belief, a discounted 4 is an arbitrage. If your future buyer pool shares it, the discount follows you to resale. | Tradition says |
Three things, honestly:
The number 4 has no structural fengshui content — it's a homophone taboo (tetraphobia), not a form issue. What is real is the price effect: units with 4 in the floor or address often transact at a discount in Singapore and Hong Kong. If you don't share the belief, that discount is an arbitrage opportunity, not a risk. Zhai tags number effects [Tradition says].
Under the Zhai methodology the heaviest residential deductions come from form-level sha you cannot renovate away: a road or driveway pointing straight at the block (road rush), the main door directly facing a hostile external feature, or a unit hemmed with no open outlook at all. Interior issues like a door-to-window straight line are lighter tiers because they're curable with layout and furniture.
You can catch most form-level issues yourself with this checklist — stand at the block entrance, the corridor, and the main door. What a self-check can't do is weigh the findings into a score or test the unit against your own BaZi chart. That's what a structured audit adds.
The Zhai Property Quick-Check (S$39 solo / S$59 couple) runs all of this plus your BaZi compatibility layer, scores it 0–100 with named risks and levers, and lands in your inbox in about 15 minutes — fast enough to read before you leave the viewing. Or see how the same scoring handled eight famous buildings.