Chinese New Year 2012: Year of Dragon Expected to Boost Real Estate in China

The Year of the Dragon holds special importance for the Chinese as it is considered to be the luckiest of Chinese years which brings happiness and success.

According to Chinese culture, the dragon is the most auspicious and powerful animal in the Chinese zodiac which is also associated with prosperity.

And since this lunar year is the year of water dragon - occurring only in 60 years - it is considered even more auspicious to the Chinese.

According to the Economist, the dragon year will possibly bring a slight boom to the housing market in China. Many people who subscribe to the Chinese zodiac are expected to wed this year and purchase a house.

As Chinese New Year approaches later this month, tens of thousands of couples are preparing to marry under what is considered an auspicious sign. To win over a bride in a country undersupplied with women, it helps a lot if the aspiring groom first proves his worth by buying a home, the Economist reported.

Even some of Hong Kong's richest property businessmen, who were born in the Year of the Dragon, can expect a prosperous 2012 under their auspicious birth sign, a feng shui master told Associated Press Wednesday.

The element of earth is especially pronounced in the Year of the Dragon, so people born this year will have an advantage in business related to the earth -- real estate for example, Hong Kong geomancer Si Tou Kin Fu told the Associated Press.

Raymond Kwok, the youngest of the Kwok clan, who was born in the 1952 Year of Dragon, is one of the city's biggest developers, Sun Hung Kai Properties.

Robert Ng, chairman of property development conglomerate Sino Group, was a dragon baby born in 1952.

In the Chinese zodiac each year is represented by an animal. The dragon is the fifth animal in the cycle and is the most auspicious sign because it is the only sign that is represented by a mythical character.

According to Si Tou, not all the people who are born in the Year of Dragon could expect fortune and power. Other factors such as the time and place of the birth also matters.

Li Ka-shing has a special life grid, unusual, said Si Tou.

Otherwise, one 12th of the Chinese population would be mega-rich -- we know that's not true.