As the world ushers in the Fire Monkey on Feb 8, The Edge Property teams up with two feng shui consultants to gather alternative insights into the property market.

Mischievous in nature, this creature has taken the property market on a wild ride. In previous years of the Monkey, private home prices had swung as high as 88% in 1980, risen 16% in 1992 and 1% in 2004. While those years were generally positive for the property market, price growth has tapered over the past three cycles.

Datuk Joey Yap of Joey Yap Pte Ltd says: “We may attempt to study the performance trends of the real estate market of Singapore by first understanding its elemental relationships in the year of the Fire Monkey. [As] the real estate sector belongs to the Earth element, it favours the Water element, which represents its wealth prospects. As such, the presence of a hidden water element in 2016 may suggest the possibility of nominal improvements for real estate in Singapore.”

Based on astrological trends, property prices might stabilise in the Year of the Rooster in 2017. The past three Rooster cycles had witnessed an uptrend in private home prices — 35% in 1981, 36% in 1993 and 4% in 2005.

The years of the Dog and Pig have been similarly marked by rising property prices in the past three cycles (see chart and Table 1 in the next page). Drawing from this pattern, prices of private homes could start to show signs of recovery as early as 2017, and pick up in the years of the Dog (2018) and Pig (2019).

“Uptrends in the property market may be observed in years that are related to the water element, such as those of the Pig and Dragon. On the other hand, this sector is unlikely to record favourable performance trends in years dominated by strong Fire and Earth elements, such as the recent years of the Horse, Goat and Ox [because] Water is dried up by the intense Fire or countered by excessive Earth elements,” Yap says.

Although property agents with unfavourable zodiacs might face tougher times in closing deals, they do not always end up worse off than those with “luckier” zodiacs. Both Anthony Lee of Lee Metaphysics Consulting and Yap agree that 2015 was favourable for agents born in the years of the Horse, Rabbit and Pig, and challenging for those born in the years of the Ox, Dog and Rat. A survey of the top 30 agents by sales in 2015 at Knight Frank Property Network Pte Ltd and Powerful Negotiators Group at PropNex Realty shows many of them overcoming their astrological challenges.

For example, 11 of these agents, born in the years of the Ox, Dog and Rat, were among their respective companies’ top 30 producers. At PropNex’s Powerful Negotiators, Mike Wong, born in the Year of the Rat, along with Kevin Feng and James Lin, both born in the Year of the Dog, overcame the astrological challenges to achieve ad mirable sales.

Knight Frank, meanwhile, requested that its top performers not be named. Separately, the zodiacs that produced the most number of top agents in both companies combined were Snake, Goat and Rooster, instead of the Horse, Rabbit and Pig, identified as the “lucky” zodiacs.

Auspicious and inauspicious zodiacs in 2016

Lee picks Snake as the most favourable zodiac this year as there will be six noblemen assisting it. Rat and Dragon will also do well, as they will have three groups of shining stars assisting them. “On the other hand, Tiger, Pig and Monkey will be in conflict with Tai Sui [stars directly opposite to Jupiter that influence the Chinese zodiac], so they are the bottom three,” he adds.

Yap gives his take: “The auspicious stars in 2016 favour those with Ox, Rooster and Snake zodiacs. The wealth stars, namely National Treasure and Fortune Virtue, align with the Ox and Snake, respectively and their presence in the Bazi Month Pillar will bring bright business and career prospects. Those born in the Year of the Rooster will most likely be called upon to provide help and assistance to others, owing to the presence of The Sun star. This may augur well for the expansion of clientele base and fortifying business reputation.

“2016 will be challenging for those born in the years of the Dog, Tiger and Monkey owing to the presence of inauspicious stars and a clash with the Grand Duke. Those with these signs in their Bazi Month Pillar will have to be cautious about petty people and emotional issues disrupting progress.”

Dos and don’ts at home

To ensure a smoother year ahead, Lee advises against painting the west wall in the living room red. “Also, do not place red-coloured objects or anything that symbolises fire in the west area,” he says. “Those with ‘unlucky’ zodiac signs can refer to the Chinese almanac and choose a favourable day and time to carry out important activities. They can also convert their inner negative energy to positive energy with the help of certain essential oils.”

Yap suggests that “to avoid any negative repercussions causing misfortunes such as illness, loss of wealth and accidents, it is imperative to not aggravate or renovate the respective sectors this year, owing to the residing inauspicious affliction stars — Northeast: Year Breaker and Five Yellow; South: Three Killings; and Southwest: Grand Duke. The deadliest will be the Northeast sector, where two affliction stars reside, increasing the potential dangers manifold.

“Those with the presence of inauspicious zodiac signs in their Bazi can mitigate or cushion the impact by avoiding the bad sectors in their home and instead, ‘activate’ the good sectors to harness the good luck brought by residing auspicious stars. One may do well to perform ‘activation’ on the respective sectors this year: Southeast: Nobleman — helpful people and assistance; East: Promotion/investment prospects; and North: Peach Blossom — relationship prospects.”

Dos and don’ts in the office

“As most people have limited control over feng shui in the office, what they can do is get their workspace feng shui right. If they can balance the qi at the workspace, they would be able to benefit from the positive energy,” says Lee.

He suggests that drink and water bottles be placed in the North sector, computer monitor and telephones in the South, documents and files in the East, and mirrors, round objects and decorative stones in the West. For decorative stones, he advises using real stones with decorative ornaments or colourful round crystals. “The crystals should be round and not triangle, square or in other shapes.”

Yap says as one has limited control over feng shui in an office environment, there may not be much that can be done to benefit from the external qi influences. Instead, one may do well to look inward by studying their Bazi chart to identify their career expertise and what motivates them, to maximise their potential.

He also advises those with “unlucky” signs to find their favourable direction, be it for sitting, working, conducting a meeting or giving a presentation, based on their personal Gua Number, which can be found in their personalised Bazi chart.