Shape, site and self: How feng shui veteran Rex Chong reads properties
Rex Chong advises homeowners and businesses on feng shui across Singapore, Malaysia, China and other Asian markets. (Photo: Samuel Isaac Chua / EdgeProp Singapore)
Most people only start thinking about feng shui when something has gone wrong.
By the time they seek advice, a business has stalled, family relationships are strained, or their health has deteriorated.
To Rex Chong, a Singaporean feng shui practitioner with nearly four decades of experience in Singapore and abroad, this reactive mindset is a persistent misunderstanding surrounding his work.
“Whether it’s a home or a workplace, the best time to address issues is actually before they happen,” he says. “If the foundation is strong from the start, everything else follows more smoothly in the long run.”
While some of his corporate clients, particularly larger companies, consult annually as preventive planning, many approach him only when operations have hit a wall. Homeowners tend to reach out after moving in and problems have surfaced.
This pattern points to a common gap in understanding. Feng shui, in practice, is more pragmatic than most assume — closer to risk mitigation, and offering another lens for evaluating how a property’s form and surroundings might create friction or flow.
Reframed this way, it is about paying attention to the spaces we inhabit and asking whether they support or hinder what we are trying to build inside them.
Self-taught scholar
Chong has always been a bookworm. At 16, that habit led him to feng shui when a friend’s mother gave him a stack of books on the subject. He read, absorbed, then sought out more. By 17, he was advising clients.
Over the years, he worked his way through the major feng shui literature from mainland China, Taiwan and Hong Kong, which are often regarded as the main sources of published feng shui knowledge.
"I just kept reading and researching, and I’m still constantly learning and upskilling every day," he says. “After going through so many books over the years, I’ve gotten pretty quick at spotting which authors really know their stuff and which books are, well, not so useful.”
Chong with a client at Kamisoul, his feng shui consultancy and shop at International Plaza. (Samuel Isaac Chua / EdgeProp Singapore)
As formal courses back in the 1990s were often prohibitively expensive and time-consuming, and Chong also had to complete his National Service then, he took a more grounded route. He learnt by reading everything he could get his hands on and applied it in the field.
Over time, he built up enough experience across homes, offices, factories and different spatial problems that instinct supplemented knowledge. He saw patterns repeat, learnt what worked and what did not, and kept reading.
His practice grew in scope as much as in depth. From residential consultations in Singapore, it expanded to commercial projects — offices, factories and entire buildings — across Asia, including Malaysia and China.
He has worked extensively with corporate clients in Guangzhou, Dalian, Hong Kong and other cities. The clients typically engage him during the planning stages to advise on site selection, auspicious groundbreaking dates, spatial planning, and where best to seat key management within a building.
Sometimes, clients in China also request for customised feng shui ju at their properties. Tailored to the owner’s needs, these feng shui ju layouts or configurations range from small-scale indoor formations to large-scale outdoor setups for entire developments.
For example, the Rain Oculus installation at Marina Bay Sands and the crab-like shape of Ngee Ann City from an aerial perspective are often cited as manifestations of feng shui ju in Singapore’s urban architecture to maximise prosperity and success. That said, whether they were explicitly designed as such remains a matter of interpretation among practitioners.
“In Singapore, space constraints can make it difficult to implement these special feng shui ju formations, but the principles can be scaled down to smaller setups within homes or offices,” Chong says.
In Singapore, Chong has consulted for strata owners and office tenants at commercial properties including CapitaGreen (left), Fortune Centre (middle), Hong Leong Building, Pacific Tech Center and The Heeren (right). (Photo: Samuel Isaac Chua / EdgeProp Singapore)
Reading a property
When Chong assesses a property, he works through three layers. The first is the most visible: shape.
“If you’re looking for a home with good feng shui, the first thing to consider is the shape of the unit,” he says. Squarish or rectangular floor plans are ideal. “Try to avoid irregular or triangular layouts.”
Be it in the kitchen, living room or bedroom, triangular spaces are difficult to furnish and the qi or energy within them can lead to the people living there becoming more prone to agitation and other emotional issues, Chong explains.
The second layer is the environment. The unit’s surroundings matter just as much as the interior. It is generally recommended to avoid factors or clashes that can cause chaotic energy flow. “For example, we might suggest not living too close to a power substation or rubbish collection point,” he says.
“Many of these already carry their own practical logic or scientific explanations. But from a feng shui perspective, different environmental factors can cause varying negative effects on a property’s occupants,” Chong adds.
For commercial properties, the environment is especially critical. What is on the left, right, front and back of the building? Are neighbouring structures taller or shorter? Is there any empty space nearby? All of these can influence whether a business will prosper.
The third layer is the bazi of the owner or occupants. An ancient Chinese metaphysical system, bazi analyses a person’s life, personality and future potential based on eight characters derived from their birth year, month, day and hour.
"Within a person's bazi, there are what we call hidden ‘codes’,” says Chong. “These reveal whether you may need more of some elements, as compared with another person who might need less. Certain elements and orientations may benefit you while others will be unsuitable."
Bazi acts as a calibration tool, personalising the feng shui assessment. It is why two people could respond differently to the same property. For families, all occupants’ bazi may be considered to find a configuration that works for everyone. Environment and shape provide the framework, while bazi determines how well that framework serves the people living or working there.
These three factors — shape, site and self — cannot be separated, and are essential in how Chong evaluates any property, whether it's a landed home in Newton, a high-rise office in Hong Kong, or a sprawling manufacturing complex in Guangzhou.
Homeowners at condos such as Casa Jervois, Hazel Park, Parc Centros, Sun Glade, The Florence Residences (pictured), and landed housing enclaves have sought Chong’s feng shui advice. (Photo: Google Maps)
Solving spatial friction at home and at work
For residential clients, their concerns tend to cluster around a few recurring themes: money, career, interpersonal relationships, health, and their children’s academic or career performance.
Some homeowners seek help with family tensions or communication breakdowns. Others come with questions about setbacks at work, persistent health issues, or financial instability that seems resistant to conventional solutions.
One of Chong’s recent cases involved a family living in a Punggol condo. The older son had not spoken to his mother in over two years. The younger son was struggling in school, but refused to engage a tutor despite his parents' urging.
On the parents’ request, Chong visited their home and promptly identified a “door clash” or “confronting doors” issue, known as men chong, where two doors face each other directly. He suggested simple, inexpensive adjustments to break the energy flow between the doors. Within a month, the family noted a shift in the home’s dynamic; the older son initiated a conversation with his mother, and they even had a heart-to-heart conversation that ended in happy tears. Meanwhile, the younger son voluntarily asked for a tutor.
Chong laughs when recounting the parents’ reaction: “The mother called me in disbelief. She was ecstatic. But really, it’s just about removing the friction points that keep people on edge.”
He points out that resolving family relationships through feng shui adjustments at home is usually straightforward and requires only minor adjustments.
On top of his client work, Chong also runs feng shui and energy workshops that train aspiring practitioners. (Photos: Samuel Isaac Chua / EdgeProp Singapore; Rex Chong / Kamisoul, Paparexx)
Commercial clients bring different concerns. Many business owners approach him when operations have stalled — for instance, ships getting stuck in line at ports, deals falling through, or internal friction slowing decision-making.
His approach in such cases is to conduct a comprehensive workplace audit to identify underlying issues across the company’s entire spatial setup.
Rather than targeting the immediate problem alone, the remedies he suggests focus on improving operations holistically, which may include helping with staff harmony and client acquisition. Often, the specific issue that prompted the consultation resolves itself once these broader conditions improve.
A collaborative approach to personalised spaces
In the residential sector, Chong’s clients in Singapore are mostly aged 30 and above. Among Singaporeans, his clientele spans Chinese, Indian and Malay homeowners — a range that might surprise those who assume feng shui appeals only to the Chinese community. Foreign buyers, mainly from Indonesia, China, Vietnam and Myanmar, make up another significant portion of his clientele here.
Regardless of their background, Chong finds that their engagement with feng shui typically aligns with different stages of the property-buying journey. Foreigners usually treat it as due diligence, engaging him early in their house-hunting process. “Most of them will shortlist a development or neighbourhood first, then ask which block, stack or unit they should buy,” he says.
That gives him the chance to study the project’s site plan, floor plans and the buyer’s bazi, and understand their needs before recommending a unit that will be suitable for their whole household.
Singaporeans more often seek feng shui after moving in, when specific concerns have emerged.
“Interestingly, many of my foreign clients have stronger conviction in feng shui and see it as something to consider upfront,” he notes.
Chong and his small team of consultants also work alongside interior designers engaged by the clients, to advise on room layouts, furniture placement and spatial flow. His role is to review the design firm’s drawings, highlight opportunities to enhance beneficial areas, and identify potential conflicts.
“Look, I’m not here to ruin anyone’s dream home,” he says with a laugh. “We respect everyone’s aesthetic preferences and work around what people want. Most of the time, small tweaks are all it takes, and nobody needs to sacrifice their favourite designer sofa or the reading nook they’ve always wanted.”
For example, he examines whether a home’s interior design might suppress functionally important areas in the property — spots associated with academic achievement, mental clarity, career success, relationships and health. The specific locations of these areas vary, depending on each occupant’s bazi.
Any recommended adjustments are usually subtle: a shift in furniture placement, leaving a square foot of space clear, angling a bed or desk differently, hanging a small feng shui ornament or charm in a strategic spot, or repositioning a mirror.
“We always explain the rationale clearly, discuss and communicate openly with the owner and designer, so it’s very collaborative,” he notes. “Feng shui doesn’t have to clash with good design.”
Homeowners at Casa Jervois, Hazel Park (pictured), Watertown, and other condos and landed housing enclaves have sought Chong’s feng shui advice. (Photo: Google Maps)
Demystifying metaphysics for contemporary living
After decades in the field, Chong remains matter-of-fact about his work. “Feng shui works best when you don’t wait for things to go wrong,” he says simply.
On top of his client work with his team, he also teaches. In between assessing properties on-site and meeting homebuyers and business owners, Chong frequently runs courses that train aspiring practitioners, many of whom now consult independently.
Feng shui aside, his practice in Chinese metaphysics includes energy workshops, life audits, and numerology.
Chong takes a pragmatic view of belief and scepticism. Some people come in fully convinced and eager to make changes, while others are more hesitant as they explore alternative perspectives and solutions.
“Either way, we do our best to walk through the pros and cons and lay out the options clearly, and they decide what they’re comfortable with,” he says. “Some people go all in, some pick and choose. That’s fine; it’s their space, their life,” he says.
It is an unassuming approach. No dramatic promises or inflated claims, just the steady suggestion that a little spatial foresight might prevent larger headaches later.
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