Malaysian’s Chinese Perception on Honeycomb Housing:

A Study on “Feng Sui Conflict” in a Predominatly Chinese Township1

Bukryman Sabri, Nurizan Yahaya, Mohd Peter Davis & Mazlin Ghazali

Jabatan Pengurusan Sumber dan Pengajian Pengguna

Fakulti Ekologi Manusia

Universiti Putra Malaysia

Honeycomb housing is a new Malaysian innovation and offers an affordable and

environmentally friendly alternative to terrace house. In conventional schemes, houses are laid
out in rows in the familiar, ubiquitous terraces, but in the Honeycomb layout the houses are
placed in circular fashion around a central space to form a small neighbourhood of between 5 to
16 houses. The central spaces are linked to each other and to the main distribution roads by short
connecting service roads. The central space – a kind of open courtyard – consists of a cul-de-sac
looping around a communal garden. It is gaining wide support from potential house buyers in
exhibitions, amongst housing professionals at seminars and conferences. However, developers
are concerned that the departure from rectangular shaped building lots to triangular housing
compounds, which link up to form hexagonal cul-de-sacs then Honeycomb communities, is too
radical and may conflicts with Feng Sui beliefs. If true, this cultural objection may deter Chinese
house buyers, a major section of housing market. The objectives of this study were to identify the
preferences between Honeycomb houses to terrace houses and to examine the serious
commercial risk so called “Feng Sui conflict” in a predominantly Chinese township. The data
were selected based on simple random sampling, which included two types of house, namely
single and double storey terraces. A total of 150 households in Taman Johor Jaya were involved
in this study and they were interviewed using questionnaire comparing as fairly as possible a
RM220,000 Honeycomb house with an equivalent RM220,000 terrace house. Data were
analyzed using the SPSS program. The result of the study revealed that over 1000 potential
customers for the Honeycomb house compared to fewer than 300 for the terrace house. Although
50 percent of the Chinese in Johor Jaya agreed that the Honeycomb house conflicted with Feng
Sui beliefs, only 33 percent said they would consult a Feng Sui expert before buying such house.
Whilst the Honeycomb house had particular appeal to Malay (84%), Chinese (56%) and Indian
(58%) preferred the Honeycomb. The data showed that there was a little resistance amongst the
Chinese residents in Johor Jaya. The potential buyers of the Honeycomb house were 352
Chinese, 364 Malays and 294 Indians. The concern of developers that Honeycomb housing
conflicts with Feng Sui is largely unfounded. The Chinese, Malays and Indians will buy
Honeycomb houses in strong preference to terrace houses. The simple and economic survey
techniques described in this study can greatly reduce the commercial risk to developers and town
planners in government and private sector. By measuring consumer perception at a very early
stage of housing project, the affordability, cultural acceptability and many other factors of new
houses and their surroundings can be forecast amongst different sections of the house buying
public.

1
Abstract for 3rd International Consumer sciences conference, Belfast, Nothern Ireland.
27-29 June 2007