Today the South China Morning Post features an interesting article about ‘haunted homes’ in Hong Kong. It talks about the difficulties that come with sales of these places, as a history of suicide, murder or terminal illness negatively impacts the fung shui of a unit. And we all know how seriously some take this superstitious crap ancient Chinese energy system. Bad fung shui in turn impacts the market value of a home and occasionally surrounding ones as well, sometimes for decades. Check these two examples:

1) In 1996, a likely to be claustrophobic man killed his wife, three kids and two other tenants with poison and gas in his 492 sf flat. Since then, the place has been sold a few times, yet almost every time the selling price was lower than the previous one. Current value? HK$ 350,000, 70% lower than the price for similar units in the same building.

2) Last month a 752 sf unit at Kornhill was sold for HK$ 3.7 million, 20% below market price. Why? Because it faced a flat in which a woman murdered her hubby while he was slurping up his congee in 1988. She beat him to death with a hammer, cooked his parts and threw the remains in a garbage bin. And since this is all kinda nasty, it apparently affected the fung shui of the entire fucking block.

SMCP further reports that our banks keep lists of ‘haunted homes’ and make sure interested buyers do not get a mortgage for these places. Who would wanna buy them anyway? Guys like Chan Ying-kai, experienced investor in homes with a dark history. His priceless advice? Only invest in units that have dropped 40-50% in value compared to similar ones, and then find the right sucker to sell it to:

“Wait for the right partners (…) such as Christians or gweilos.“

Oh, and don’t get caught.