Homebuyer buries copper plates in Sydney unit for good luck

A bizarre new trend has emerged in home sales, with owners requesting previously unheard of renovations.

An artist's impression of the Wolseley Eight townhouses in Lindfield.

A homebuyer from China is turning heads in Sydney after requesting copper plates be buried under the floor of his multimillion dollar townhouse on the north shore.

It follows an increasingly popular trend in the number of local and international Chinese buyers looking to purchase off-the-plan units that can be easily personalised.

Plus Agency general manager Peter Li sold a townhouse in the recently built Wolseley Eight project in Lindfield for $4.5786m last year to a Chinese buyer.

A Chinese buyer wanted the floor lined with copper plates to 'walk on prosperity'.

The buyer requested copper plates to be built into the floors, a practice that is considered good Feng Shui – since the owner is considered to be ‘walking on good fortune’.

“Copper shines like gold and is also a very conductive metal. These copper plates are going in the whole floor,” Mr Li said. “We have stacks and stacks of copper plates in our office. When the builder is ready for more packs, we take them there.”

Mr Li told The Daily Telegraph that agents often accommodate requests from buyers to get off-the-plan sales across the line, highlighting the fact that these properties can be personalised before being purchased.

“In an established building, the cooktop may be induction, but the buyer might want gas because they want to cook traditional Chinese food … The buyer might request an oversized range hood because of this heavy cooking. They probably want fly screens in the windows, they might also want electric vehicle chargers in their own car spot.
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An increasing number of overseas buyers are purchasing off-the-plan apartments and townhouses to transform them to suit their tastes.

“Everyone needs a strong reason to buy, you can’t just sell the plain vanilla unit anymore. The agent needs to be really on top of it.”

From putting a mirror into the wardrobe, to using white marble or light-coloured benchtops, the buyers of off-the-plan apartments are able to have a range of Feng Shui inclusions at a relatively cheap price.

One Feng Shui teaching indicates a mirror should be placed in the main bathroom of a home.

Copper itself is one of the materials used in Feng Shui due to its conductive properties that associate it with the flow of energy.

Since the return of international travel, Mr Li said he is seeing buyers purchasing the off-the-plan apartments in higher numbers than usual.

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The return of international travel has driven up the sale of off-the-plan apartments.

Rising interest rates have also attracted these buyers who are willing to pay a higher figure for these apartments, since the return on investment is greater for spaces being rented out.

“You naturally pay a premium for a brand-new property, but these new units and townhouses have far superior features, finishes, and fixtures than the existing homes in the same suburbs – which puts the premium up even further.

A view of the living room of the townhouse.

“Chinese buyers trust Australia’s off-the-plan market because it gives buyers more protections than in China. In China, if you buy off-the-plan, you start paying your mortgage before the property even settles. In Australia you don’t. Also, there are no trust accounts in China, so if your developer goes bust, you lose your money. Here, you get your money back.”

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Originally published as Homebuyer buries copper plates in Sydney unit for good luck