The connection between housing and religious beliefs go back fairly long. Rulers and kings in the past are known to innovate architecture that suited the wind, the air, the movement of planets and all aspects that could be considered godly. It was generally believed that the location of a house determined its goodness and high value.

In more modern times, this belief has best manifested itself in Vastu Shastra. More and more buildings in India's burgeoning metropolitan cities are beginning to swear by this ancient Indian art form. For those who believe in Vaastu Shastra, it is the scientific study of directions, which aims at creating equilibrium by balancing the different elements of nature and using them for the benefit of human beings.

Orientation in Vaastu Shastra refers to the eight directions set as the guiding force, which rule the life and destiny of the occupants who reside in the particular direction of the house. The basic directions according to Vaastu are east, west, north and south. And northeast, southeast, southwest and northwest are considered to be the conjunction points where the two basic directions meet and such directions are of much significance as they hold the power to execute the powers of both the directions. So Vaastu Shastra is mainly based on the accumulating of strengths diversified by the forces, in co-existence to the Paanchbhootas or the five Elements, opines D K Roy, a leading exponent.

But on ground, when it comes to actually developing a property, it may not be as simple as it sound to be. Increasingly, developers are caught in a dilemma whether to go by the Vaastu Shastra or follow the designing need and normal customer preferences. Atleast that’s what Sumit Dabriwal, managing director, Riverbank Holdings Private Ltd, a leading realty developer feels. “I remember while developing some project, I was told that Vaastu discourages opening in the south. But home buyers’ common psychology is to look for a south-open apartment. There are innumerable other instances as well where a developer faces similar conflicts,” Dabriwal told FC Estate.

“I, for one, do not necessarily believe in or follow Vaastu. It is virtually impossible to follow all of them in practical life. Particularly in cases of large format housing complexes or townships, that we do, it is impossible to follow them. It’s not practical either. The best and wisest thing to do is to go by the designing principles. Having said this, I must add that we at times come across customers who only look for Vaastu-compliant apartments. I would say this trend is more prevalent in case of higher-end apartments. As far as we are concerned, we are respectful to Vaastu principles without compromising on the quality and designing needs,” said Dabriwal.

B R Mittal, managing director, Mittal Global Finance (P), financial advisor to various real estate projects across the country, told FC Estate, “Home buyers are more interested in affordability of the project. They are not so much concerned about the Vaastu compliance. Their main concern is whether they can service their EMIs. This is true particularly for large townships.” He however admitted (quite echoing Dabriwal’s viewpoint) that in some segments, particularly in the higher income segment, Vaastu compliance is an important criterion.

Said A Rathi, another leading Vaastu consultant, “Vaastu as a subject is an amalgamation of art, science, astrology and astronomy. Vaastu which literally refers to the dwelling or shelter, is planned and implemented taking into consideration the effect of the forces in the environment and the 'Paanchbhootas' so as to maintain a state of balance, thus maneuvering our luck, health, wealth, karma (deeds) and the essentials of life. Vaastu Shastra as a science also stresses on the orientation of a building or structure. It emphasises that the orientation of a building and its design is not only significant with the purpose of energy conservation but also for the purpose of offering a life which brings good health, wealth and prosperity for its occupants.” And you like (or believe) it or not, residential and commercial spaces constructed nowadays rely on the basics of the five elements in all aspects of planning, construction and doing the interiors.

“Be it Kolkata, Asansol, Burdwan or Udaipur, Raipur or some places down South, wherever we take up a new project we hire a Vaastu consultant and design the project accordingly. The buyers insist on that. And at the end of the day the end products have to be sold to the end users,” Abhishek Bharadwaj, vice president, Bengal Shristi Infrastructure Development Limited, told FC Estate.

“Recently we have been noticing that whosoever comes to us for buying a property, comes with a ‘Direction Clock’. And they don’t go by what we say, they take a call on the basis of what the Direction Clock says. So much is the faith on Vaastu. I would say more than 70 per cent of our customers insist on buying only Vaastu compliant property,” said Bharadwaj.

Vastu believers say that since ancient times, temples, monuments, town and cities constructed on the parameters of Vaastu Shastra are more flourishing compared to those debarred from it. Even these days, developers and constructors, practice it quite commonly. These developers and constructors adopt Vaastu for their projects in the development of housing colonies, hotels, and almost all the major residential and commercial properties in India.

Even towns and cities are planned according to Vaastu. It can be used in the micro and macro level depending on which field it is used. While developers practice it, Vaastu has also become a backbone for people who construct their abodes with expectations of living a happy and prosperous life.

However, even today, the concept and principles of Vaastu Shastra are still half heartedly and incompletely understood, feels Mayank Saksena, associate director, Jones Lang LaSalle Meghraj. Ideally it has to vary from person to person as it has to match an individual’s own ‘kundali’. But practically that’s not possible and so what people look at is whether the land on which the property is built and the overall property is Vaastu compliant.

“Be it property buyer or developer they mostly go by the thumb rules. And these thumb rules are normally very simple and go well with local climatic conditions. For instance, Vaastu encourages and advocates having the kitchen in the east direction. Now we all know that sun rises in the east. And therefore, early morning sun rays get into the kitchen and kills the germs, which in turn is very good for health,” Saksena told FC Estate.

Forget about how much of it is actually understood or followed, if a property is not Vaastu compliant, there is almost no taker for it, warns Saksena, adding, “I remember one particular project by Sobha Developers in Bangalore, where the developers had to re-do the entire designing finding no taker to its originally designed project that had not been Vaastu compliant. There are many such instances. In case of a property which is not Vaastu compliant, either there is no taker, or it takes much longer time and it has to be sold at 2-5 per cent lesser price. One gets less rentals for such property and the resale value is much lower as well.” Naturally, then, noone - developers and buyers included - wants to take a chance with Vaastu.

The JLL Meghraj Associate Director pointed out that since most of the people who believe in Vaastu, follow the thumb rules, without getting into the finer details, they find its guidelines to be very simple and easy to follow. It can be applied to virtually all sets of constructions, be it a house, a particular room, temple, commercial complex, industry and so on. Vastu extracts the positive energies of the five basic elements of nature - the solar energy of sun, lunar energy of moon, wind energy, magnetic effects of earth and heat energy of fire, balancing them to bring harmony in the life of a person. In fact, a harmonious life with the nature is the theme of Vaastu Shastra. And it’s not just while building house, room, commercial complex, temple and others that people follow Vaastu Shastra principles, if one is go by what Rathi, the leading Vaastu exponent said, businessmen consult Vaastu while getting visiting cards (business cards) designed including its colour composition. Naturally, then, noone - developers and buyers included - wants to take a chance with Vaastu.