Location. Location. Location.

How many times have we heard this dictum where property is concerned? While there is no denying that location plays a major part in the success of an investment in property, how that particular property is situated in a given sure-win locale is also of great significance.

The image shows just such a scenario: A house located below road level in a prime location in the suburbs of Kuala Lumpur. While the house facing it – and therefore in the higher slope of the hill – fetches a price a multiple of the asking price for this property, the latter languishes unsold at the bottom of the hill – pun intended! Is this true? Not necessarily…………

There are houses facing out from a T-junction or cross-junction or any combination of junctions; there are those facing an inauspicious geographical direction. Property so situated with a host of combinations and permutations of these and other factors are considered in detailed geomancy, feng shui or vastu shastra as to whether a property is favourably placed or not and what to do about it to negate or cushion its dire effects to the value of the property and its owners or inhabitants.

This particular scenario in this image, may not be due to the after effects of the sub-prime fiasco in the States as this situation remained before that bubble burst. However, as the effects ramify to the rest of the world, surely conditions will be further exacerbated and property situated in good locales but disadvantageously positioned will be subject to further financial challenges.