Feng Shui is an ancient Chinese practice which places emphasis on aligning your space in a way that creates a positive flow of energy, with some of the core goals focused on how to attract health, wealth, and love into your life. 

While certainly no new concept, as awareness around wellbeing and mindfulness continues to grow, it is no surprise that these principles have gained traction in the interior design world.

With experts citing that these practices could positively influence the sale price of your home, here at Sofa Club, we wanted to put this to the test to see if there was any truth in these claims. SPOILER ALERT: There may well be. 

By analysing more than 360,000 residential property listings across the UK and scanning the descriptions for 43 Feng Shui-related terms, we compared the listings with and without these references to identify the potential impacts that using Feng Shui practices can have on sale price and completion time to understand its impact.

DO PROPERTIES WITH FENG SHUI DESCRIPTIONS SELL FOR MORE MONEY?

Whether you are aiming for a higher market value or a smooth, speedy sale for your property (ideally both), presentation matters.

Our analysis revealed a remarkable insight: Those who incorporate Feng Shui-related terms into their property descriptions saw a staggering +33% increase in property value, with an average sale price of £405,682.

That’s precisely a £100,140 difference on average (yes, you read that right) when compared to the £305,542 sale price of properties not currently incorporating Feng Shui practices into their listings. 

DWELLINGS THAT USE FENG SHUI TERMINOLOGY SELL 33 DAYS QUICKER ON AVERAGE

While a higher sale price is always welcomed, the speed of the sale can be just as crucial, especially in cases where you may need to move into a new home urgently.

The good news? Those adopting Feng Shui-related terms into their property descriptions sold 33 days quicker than the national average1 (90 days compared to 123 days). 

HALF A MILLION POUNDS OF ADDED VALUE OR 74 DAYS QUICKER TO SELL: A COUNTY-BY-COUNTY BREAKDOWN

One of Feng Shui’s beliefs is that its practices will bring about prosperity, also known as financial wealth and success. This certainly seems to be the case across many counties in the UK, with as much as half a million pounds up for grabs in some areas.

That’s right, the county of Buckinghamshire ranked atop the list of top 20 locations based on house price difference, with the adoption of Feng Shui terms adding an astronomical £530,712 (111%) to the market value of the average home. 

When it comes to price difference by percentage, Norfolk ranked highest, increasing the value by 279%. This was then followed by Bristol (237%) and Warwickshire (185%). In all of these four counties, homeowners pocketed a minimum of more than £420,000 on average.

As reported, the average property sale in the UK takes 123 days to complete, our latest research suggests that this could significantly improve by incorporating Feng Shui practices, especially in some specific counties. 

Leading the charge is Monmouthshire, where properties embracing Feng Shui sold an impressive 74 days faster than the average UK home. The area was found to be the top-performing county in the UK for efficient property sales. 

Also ranking highly for efficient transactions were Gloucestershire (66 days faster), Dorset (64), Suffolk (63) and Bristol (60). 

USING FENG SHUI PRINCIPLES TO SELL YOUR HOME

With the data clearly illustrating just how much money and time could be saved by adopting Feng Shui principles, we consulted with our in-house interior expert, Monika Puccio, to share practical tips for bringing these ideas into your home: 

Declutter and de-personalise - “Decluttering and removing any personal elements from your home not only helps to cleanse any existing energy, but it can also work wonders for helping the prospective buyer better imagine how their life could look if they were to buy your home.”

Staging your home  - “Staging is super important when it comes to attracting a buyer for your home. Focus on a minimalism approach, as less is more when it comes to creating a sense of calm in the home. Introducing as much light into the home as possible will help to highlight its best features, while being intentional with furniture placement encourages a more natural flow of energy.

For example, those with corner sofas should position their sofa diagonally across from their entrance door, positioned behind a solid wall. This layout works to keep your sofa within eyesight without placing the sofa in line with the door, which is believed to maintain a more balanced energy and welcoming atmosphere.

Sage the bad energy  - “Feng Shui practice tells us that cleansing your home is important to maintaining a balanced energy. Burning sage in high–traffic areas such as the living room or bedroom, where frequent emotional conversations are most likely to appear is important to resetting the energy. Make sure to open your windows whilst you do it.”

Front door focus  - “First impressions are often formed before the buyer has entered the home, and that’s why the entrance deserves special attention. A freshly painted door and some well-groomed plants can help to set the tone and elevate curb appeal for your home.”

HOW TO ATTRACT DIFFERENT ENERGIES INTO YOUR HOME

Feng Shui practices aren’t just for those looking to sell their homes, however, as its principles have long been thought to invite powerful energies such as love, wealth, and luck into the home. Monika shares some tips on how you can harness those energies throughout your space: 

Wealth and prosperity - “Incorporating objects and colours that signify wealth is a great way to attract the energy into your home. This could be simply through things such as coins, crystals, and money plants, or via colours such as gold, purple, red and green.”

Love and relationships - “The bedroom is the most powerful space for attracting love and relationships according to Feng Shui; therefore, to support this energy, it is essential to remove any distractions, such as the television or family photos, which could disrupt intimacy. Instead, introduce elements of pink into the bedroom through accents, such as pillows or blankets, as this colour is thought to attract love and is seen as soft and nurturing.”

Health - “Earth tones are thought to play an important role in attracting health into your home. These can be incorporated through larger statement pieces, such as a statement sofa or by painting interior walls in a muted earth tone to create a calming backdrop. Other accents such as plants, natural textures and candles can further help to bring healing energy into the home.”

Creativity - “Consider how you position your workspace. Placing your desk in the ‘command position’ (directly facing the door) is thought to help establish a sense of control and mental clarity. Keeping your workspace airy and light, with minimal furniture such as a wood desk and an accent chair encourages flow and promotes free movement.”

Luck - “To subtly reinforce positive energy and invite luck into the home, bamboo plants should be your go-to. My recommendation would be to place it on a side table near the sofa, where it can remain in your peripheral view and subtly reinforce good energy.”

METHODOLOGY

1 - Zoopla averages 15-20 weeks to complete a property sale here. From this, we found the midway point, which is 123 days. 

We used Screaming Frog to crawl the active listings on a UK-based online real estate platform, extracting key information such as property descriptions, number of bedrooms, location, and listed price for all residential properties.

To ensure the dataset remained focused and relevant, we excluded non-residential listings—including office spaces, warehouses, and development land—resulting in a dataset of 361,542 residential properties spanning from Northern Ireland to Cornwall and the Shetland Islands.

With this refined dataset, we analysed the property descriptions for mentions of 43 Feng Shui-related terms, including “Feng Shui”, “energy flow”, “balanced environment”, “harmonious”, and more. Each mention was recorded per listing to determine whether a property referenced any Feng Shui elements. We then compared these listings to those with no Feng Shui mentions, analysing differences in average listing prices and listing dates to uncover any notable patterns.