Nowadays, people get more interested in quality of their life owing to ongoing national economic growth and their better income level, and the more desires for better quality of residential environment in their urban life drive them to live in their o...
Nowadays, people get more interested in quality of their life owing to ongoing national economic growth and their better income level, and the more desires for better quality of residential environment in their urban life drive them to live in their own dream house with comfortable residential environment and good locational conditions surrounded with natural environment including mountain, watercourse and park.
They desire to have their own dream house with good locational conditions, partly because they prefer it as a ground of realizing values to represent their better economic and living standards, and partly because they have a tendency to prefer nature as an intangible asset conserved for their healthy life.
Originally, topography-based divination theory (風水地理) came from a critical mind about how human being can live in a good harmony with nature. It is a Korean traditional theory that has been inherited from ancients even to this generation over many centuries in closest associations with ups and downs of life in good luck, ill luck, fortune and misfortune.
The purpose of this study was to take scientific approaches to housing locations from the viewpoint of topography-based divination theory that investigates nature through mountains, watercourses and the like. In order to achieve the purpose, this study analyzed potential effects of locational characteristics and physical characteristics - as general factors of apartment houses - on the price of apartment houses in Bundang New Town. Next, certain feng-shui characteristics like Baesanimsu (optimal best housing location with mountain in the back and flowing river in the front, 背山臨水) and Gungsu and Ban-gungsu (water route of Tancheon Creek) were adopted as variables to make an empirical analysis on potential effects of feng-shui characteristics upon the price of apartment houses in said New Town.
The methodology of this study can be outlined as follows:
First, this study examined existing literatures about topography-based divination theory in order to identify a theoretical structure for locational factors of said theory.
Secondly, this study selected a target location and variables to collect useful data and make theoretical examinations into them before descriptive statistical analysis.
Thirdly, this study focused on examination of existing researches using linear model, semi-logarithm model, inverse semi-logarithm model and double logarithm model of multiple regression analysis, which are methods to realize differentiation of individual houses in forecasting the price of goods with strong heterogeneity (e.g. housing) and forecast market value produced from the qualitative characteristics of housing, so that it could make an empirical analysis on potential effects of feng-shui characteristics on the price of apartment houses in said New Town.
As a result, it was found that feng-shui characteristics were positively correlated with housing price. This finding indicates that certain factors of feng-shui characteristics such as Baesanimsu, Gungsu and Ban-gungsu location have positive effects on the price of apartment housing.
In other words, it was found that the price of apartment houses in Bundang New Town was influenced by mountains surrounding this town as well as Tancheon Creek, an ecologic lifeline of Bundang city. In regard to water route of Tancheon Creek, it could be estimated that apartment houses located inside Gungsu areas were significantly higher priced than those located outside Gungsu areas on statistical basis.
Conclusively, it is found that apartment houses in good locations with outstanding townscape resources - e.g. mountain, river, watercourse, etc conserved without unreasonable development - and good feng-shui characteristics were higher priced and preferred than those in other locations, which indicates that those advantageous locational conditions add to the economic value of apartment housing.
On the other hand, this study has its own implications in that it developed a basic foundation of empirical analyses using feng-shui characteristics as variables in terms of natural and ecologic locational factors based on feng-shui (e.g. mountain, river and watercourse) with a view to analyze potential effects of feng-shui characteristics on the price of apartment houses in Bundang New Town. Therefore, it is necessary to pursue environment-friendly and natural apartment housing complex using feng-shui characteristics such as mountain, river and watercourse in terms of future new town development projects, so that those projects will be able to have significant effects on the price of apartment housing in the future.
From these perspectives, this study sought to explore and efficiently employ ancestral wisdom to create a good dwelling for life in better location in terms of topography-based divination theory (風水地理). Hence, it is expected that follow-up studies using more variables of feng-shui characteristics than this study will give more accurate and rational findings of analysis on potential effects of feng-shui characteristics upon the price of apartment housing.