The Address of Your Vancouver Condo or Single Family House Matters

The Address of Your Vancouver Condo or Single Family House Matters

How much value could the numbers in your Vancouver real estate address add?

About $10,000 according to a recent survey conducted by Nicole Fortin, economist at the University of British Columbia. The study takes a detailed look at how much value ethnic Chinese home buyers place on addresses that contain certain numbers over others. According to the Chinese number superstition, the number 4 can represent death and other bad things while the number 8 denotes health, wealth and wellness. Any address containing double or even triple 8 all the better.

The researchers looked at more than 115,000 transactions in neighbourhoods with higher than average (18%) concentration of Chinese residents over five years. Findings suggest that these number preferences can and do affect the transaction price for real estate in certain neighbourhoods. Just how much effect do they have? Addresses ending in the lucky number 8 sold at a 2.5% premium to the median price and those ending in the unlucky number 4 sold at a discount of around 2.2%. This translates into a premium or discount of between $8,000 and $10,000 based on an average selling price of $400,000.

The number superstition originates in FengShui, which according to Wikipedia is an ancient Chinese system of aesthetics believed to use the laws of both Heaven (astronomy) and Earth (geography) to help one improve life by receiving positive energy. Aesthetics is a branch of philosophy dealing with the nature of beauty, art, and taste, and with the creation and appreciation of beauty. Historically, FengShui was widely used to orient buildingsoften spiritually significant structures such as tombs, but also dwellings and other structuresin a manner believed to emanate positive energy.

Pronunciation also plays a role. In many Chinese dialects including Cantonese and Mandarin four is a homonym for the word death and eight' is phonetically similar to the word for prosperity or wealth. In the Lower Mainland, real estate in the four cities of Vancouver, Richmond, Burnaby and Coquitlam showed the most price sensitivity to these number preferences. Although very real in terms of a quantifiable effect on real estate values, it seems to be more centered around tradition rather than a hard and fast belief that might be a deal-breaker.

It does make sense however for all those involved in the real estate business in Vancouver or Richmond to be aware and be sensitive to this phenomenon from the far east.

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