When you view a flat with Vastu in mind, the classical part of the check is short: take the bearing of the front door, see that nothing stands squarely in front of it, and make sure one bedroom lets a bed lie with its head to the south or east. Everything else that decides whether a flat is good to live in is ordinary due diligence: light, air, dryness, quiet, water, the lift and parking. Give that part most of your visit.
This page is a list to carry round a viewing, with the Vastu items kept apart from the practical ones. How much of the tradition fits a flat at all is covered in apartments and flats.
The checklist
| What to check | Why | Label |
|---|---|---|
| Bearing of the front door, read on the threshold looking out | Gives the facing and the entrance pada in the checker | Classical results (Brihat Samhita 53.72 to 53.75), read through a modern compass convention |
| Nothing directly in line with the door: a column, a lift corner, a duct | The text cautions against a road, tree, corner, well, pillar or gutter opposite the gate unless it is farther off than twice the height of the house | Classical in origin (53.76); applying it to a corridor is modern |
| An entrance that is easy to pass through, not cramped or crooked | A gate that is very short, bent or hard to enter is listed as unhelpful | Classical (53.79 to 53.81), and common sense |
| A bedroom wall that lets the bed lie head south or east | The only classical rule about sleeping | Classical (53.124) |
| A quiet corner for worship, in the north-east if possible | The gods’ room is placed in the north-east | Classical (53.118); a shelf is enough |
| Where the kitchen and toilets sit | Only the kitchen is named, in the south-east | Classical for the kitchen, modern for the rest |
| Which way the building faces | The Manasara summary prefers east or north-east and rules out south-east | Classical preference; popular grading of every side is modern |
| An uncluttered middle to the flat | The text asks for care of Brahma’s squares on a plot (53.66) | Classical idea; using it on a flat is modern practice |
| Daylight and cross ventilation | Light and moving air shape how a home feels and stays dry | Ordinary due diligence |
| Damp: stains, flaking paint, a musty smell | Costly to cure, worst under a terrace or beside bathrooms | Ordinary due diligence |
| Noise at rush hour and late evening | Traffic, generators, lift machinery, neighbours | Ordinary due diligence |
| Water hours, pressure on your floor, storage | No layout helps a dry tap | Ordinary due diligence |
| Lifts with backup power; a usable parking space | Matter more the higher you live and the more you drive | Ordinary due diligence |
| A “Vastu compliant” claim | No body certifies it, and consultants disagree | Modern marketing label |
Reading the door, and what not to read into it
Calibrate the phone’s compass and keep clear of steel railings and lift doors, which can skew it. Then stand in the doorway facing out and enter the degrees in the entrance checker. It places the door in one of 32 padas using equal compass sectors of 11.25 degrees, a modern convenience: the old table placed a gate by where it sat along the wall of a plot. The entrance article explains the difference, and how to find which way your house faces deals with magnetic and true north.
Keep the answer in proportion. It is the text’s result for that pada, not a forecast for your family, and every facing contains both favourable and cautioned padas, so learning that a flat faces east settles little. The verse was also written for the outer gate of a house, not a door off a shared landing.
Corridors are full of columns, ducts and lift shafts, so the obstruction rule comes up often. The verse names things standing directly opposite the gate and sets its own limit: farther away than twice the height of the house, and there is no harm. A column a little to one side of your door is not what it describes.
The practical checks that deserve more of your time
Visit once in the morning and once late in the day, since light and noise change. Open the taps, look into the wall corners for patches, and ask a neighbour how the building copes in heavy rain and how often the lift breaks down. Then stand in the main bedroom with the windows shut and listen.
None of this is Vastu in the technical sense, yet Varahamihira would recognise its spirit: his chapter attends to firm ground, water and a sensible approach to the gate, and says little about ornament.
The “Vastu compliant” label, and paying extra for it
Some sellers describe a flat as Vastu compliant, and a few price it accordingly. No body certifies the claim, consultants do not agree on what it requires, and the classical texts read for this site describe houses on plots rather than units in a block. The label may mean the door faces east and the kitchen sits in the south-east. It may mean much less. Whether a premium is worth paying is your decision, and a financial adviser can help you weigh the price as a whole.
Ask the seller which verse
A straightforward seller will be glad to answer these.
- Which rules does the label cover, exactly?
- For each rule, which text and verse does it come from, or is it a modern convention?
- Who checked the flat, and how: a magnetic compass, true north, or the north arrow on a drawing?
- Is the judgement about this flat’s door or the main gate of the building?
If the answers are vague, treat the label as a description of the layout rather than a reason to pay more.
Legal and financial checks are not covered here
Title, approvals, completion and occupation documents, the sale agreement, maintenance charges and the loan are questions for a property lawyer and a financial adviser. This page gives no advice on them, and no Vastu reading can stand in for them.
Some buyers also look at their birth chart before a purchase. In Jyotish the 4th house is the house of home, and the planets in the houses hub on the Vedic site explains how it is read. That is chart reading, separate from Vastu, and it says nothing about whether a building is sound.
What cannot be changed and what helps
Once you own a flat, most of what a consultant comments on is fixed: the way the building faces, where your door opens onto the corridor, the plumbing stack, the kitchen and bathrooms, the lift core and the outline of the plan. The viewing is the moment to be choosy.
What stays in your hands is small and free: which wall the bed goes against, where a shelf for worship sits, how clear the middle of the flat is kept and how bright the entrance is. If a reading leaves you uneasy after moving in, remedies without demolition explains why nothing needs to be bought or broken.
Frequently asked questions
↳ What should I check for Vastu when buying a flat?
The bearing of the front door, that nothing stands directly in front of it, a bedroom where the bed can lie head south or east, and a quiet corner for worship. Those have classical support. Light, ventilation, damp, noise, water, lifts and parking deserve more of your attention.
↳ Is a Vastu compliant flat worth a higher price?
That is your decision. No authority certifies the label, consultants disagree on what it means, and the classical texts read for this site do not describe flats. Ask the seller which rules it covers and where each comes from.
↳ Which facing is best for a flat?
Acharya's summary of the Manasara prefers east or north-east and rules out south-east; popular manuals contradict one another. The old entrance table judges the door's exact pada, and every side holds favourable and cautioned padas.
↳ Can I judge a flat's Vastu from the floor plan?
Only roughly. The north arrow on a drawing may be approximate or may show magnetic rather than true north. Take a compass reading at the door on site.
↳ Does any of this change if I buy a flat abroad?
No. Vastu uses the same compass directions everywhere, and the southern hemisphere does not reverse them. North is north in Sydney just as it is in Pune.
Sources
- Varahamihira, Brihat Samhita, chapter 53, verses 66, 72 to 76, 79 to 81, 118 and 124, read in the English translations of N. Chidambaram Iyer (1884) and V. Subrahmanya Sastri (1946).
- Prasanna Kumar Acharya, Summary of the Manasara, on the preferred facing of a building.
- The ordinary due diligence items and the questions for sellers are this site’s own suggestions, not classical rules.