I must praise the consultant who worked with us and helped us choose the perfect apartment. He understood our requirements very well and helped us accordingly. Great team!
-Morshed Hossain
How to Choose the Right Orientation & Facing for Your Apartment in Dhaka?
The apartment market in Dhaka does not care about how you feel. It is concerned with physics, wind movements, and the harsh reality of a metropolis in which the sun strikes like a sledgehammer nine months a year. But the majority of buyers enter a flat, check if the tiles are Italian and sign the cheque. They will spend the next ten years asking themselves why their air conditioning bill is equal to the national debt and why their bedroom that faces the south feels like a furnace.
Orientation is not a compass direction mumbo-jumbo. It is the difference between a flat renting 60,000 taka and one just lying vacant at 45,000. It is the difference between selling at a 40% premium in five years and having to negotiate with lowballers. If you think orientation is not important, you're the same person who thinks Dhaka traffic will improve next year.
The South-Facing Gold Standard (And Why Everyone's Wrong About It)
All the uncles and aunts in Dhaka will tell you that south-facing is king. They are not completely wrong, but they are not looking at the whole picture either. Yes, in the three weeks of pleasant weather that Dhaka has to offer, the south-facing apartments receive the winter sun. But here is what they do not say: during the period between March and October, that south side of your flat transforms your apartment into a solar oven. The smart money isn't on pure south anymore. It's on south-east. You have morning sun that does not stay longer than it is welcome, and by noon, when Dhaka reaches 38°C with 80% humidity, your apartment is already shaded. The Dhaka dark horse in real estate is north-facing apartments. They are all shunned as being gloomy, yet in a city where people spend most of their waking time under artificial lighting, anyway, who cares? The North-facing units are cooler, cut your DESCO bills by 30%, and the best part is that they are typically 10-15% less expensive to purchase. Do the math on that ROI.The Wind Game: Dhaka's Best-Kept Secret
You can forget about cardinal directions. In Dhaka, wind direction trumps sun orientation nine times out of ten. The south and south-west wind prevails between April and September. Unless your apartment catches this breeze, you are living in a concrete tomb with designer fittings. Corner units are not merely a status symbol to flaunt at your cousin's wedding. They are air-conditioning goldmines. The natural cross-ventilation that is formed by a corner flat with windows on perpendicular walls can never be duplicated by ceiling fans. Corner units sell at a much higher rate in Dhanmondi, not because developers are greedy (though they are), but because people who have experienced one summer in Dhaka understand the distinction. This is what no one tells you: look at the location of the building in comparison to others. An apartment facing south, blocked by another high-rise 20 feet away, is not facing south, but it is facing concrete. In the meantime, the west-facing unit on the 12th floor, which has clear sight lines, may be better-ventilated than any south-facer on the ground. Cease treating orientation as a separate phenomenon, like a horoscope. Context is everything.Floor Level Mathematics: Where Money Meets Altitude
Everyone wants the top floor until they realize that the water pressure in Dhaka has surrendered after the 8th floor. However, let's talk orientation in relation to height, since this is where amateur buyers get schooled. The best floor plans are floors 4-7, which face south and west. You are elevated enough to feel the breeze but not so elevated that you are being pounded by the sun in the open. The orientation is not as important above the 10th floor since you are above the majority of the shadow lines of the neighboring buildings. That west-facing penalty? It drops from 20% on the 3rd floor to maybe 5% on the 15th. Ground floor south-facing apartments are fool's gold. Of course, they are turning their backs to the south, but they are also turning their backs to the dust on the street, the cigarette smoke of the security guard, and all the mosquitoes in a three-block area. The same orientation on the 6th floor is worth 40% more, and that is before we talk about the risk of floods during the monsoon season.Neighborhood Orientation Quirks That Nobody Talks About
The broad streets of Uttara mean that orientation actually matters there, whereas in Old Dhaka, the proximity of buildings is so close that everybody is basically looking directly at the bathroom window of their neighbor. At Uttara Sector 4, east-facing apartments that face the main road sell better than south-facing ones that face the back alley. Why? Buyers are not fools, since they are aware that road facing implies easier access by the rickshaw and proper ventilation. When we are talking about Bashundhara R/A, you have to pay more attention to the nearby development processes than the orientation of the apartments themselves. You get a flat thinking it has spacious surroundings, with light and wind always coming in. The next thing you know, you are surrounded by real estate development projects. The result? Constant noise and no more of that good light and breeze in less than a year, as you get blocked by new buildings. Dhanmondi has its own microclimate. The lake isn’t just for Instagram, but it cools the air. The south-west apartments that are facing the lakes are 15% better than the traditional south-facing units in terms of rental yield. In Badda, the lakes form a localized wind pattern, which your normal rules of Dhaka orientation do not take into consideration. Gulshan's orientation game is different since half of the buildings are commercial. A residential unit, which faces a glass-fronted office building, is reflected on all day in the north. In the meantime, a west-facing apartment with a view of Gulshan Lake could be the best bargain in the area because water bodies absorb heat instead of reflecting it back at you.The Balcony Equation
An apartment with no balcony and facing south is a Ferrari with no wheels; it is still a valuable item, but missing the point. Balconies aren't just for your mother's garden or drying clothes. They're thermal buffers. An interior temperature can be reduced by 3-4°C by a deep balcony, located on the south or west. Here is where the buyers go wrong though: they look at a balcony and tick the box. Wrong. Measure the depth. Anything below 4 feet is decoration, not function. A 6-foot south-facing balcony will be worth more than a corner unit with two 3-foot balconies. One of them literally protects you from the sun; the others only provide you with more windows to wash. Balconies that face the east are gold when you are a morning tea and newspaper person. Balconies that face the west are useless unless you are a vampire or you are working at night. The balconies that will be used are north-facing because they're usable for more than two months a year.When to Ignore Everything Above
Orientation takes a back seat to proximity in case you are making purchases in Mohammadpur or Mirpur along the metro line. An apartment facing north, 200 meters to a metro station, will do better than a south-easter that is a rickshaw ride distant. The new building codes of RAJUK require higher standards of insulation and ventilation. In five years, orientation premiums will compress because mechanical ventilation will level the playing field. When you are purchasing a building that was built in 2024 or later, worry less about orientation and more about the developer's track record of actually following building codes.The Bottom Line
Orientation isn't romantic. It is not about feng shui and the superstitions of your grandmother about the facing of the bed. It is all about cash flow, resale value, and not having to sweat in your formal shirts in April. The ideal Dhaka apartment is south-eastern, on the 5th-7th floor, with 6-foot balconies, facing the prevailing wind, and looking out on something besides the water tank of another building. But there is no such thing as perfect in Dhaka. The thing is that there are trade-offs, and intelligent customers understand which ones to make. Stop looking at orientation as one factor among many. It is what makes you comfortable or miserable, profitable or stuck in the climate of Dhaka. The developers know this. The real estate managers know this. The only ones who do not are the buyers who write cheques depending on Italian tiles and modular kitchens. Get the orientation correct, and all other things are negotiable. Misjudge it, and even the marble countertops will not help you find a tenant to rent your flat. The sun does not give a damn about your feelings in the real estate game in Dhaka, but your bank account will.testimonials
Thank you for helping us throughout the project and also getting the apartment ready on time. Really happy with the effort of your team and wish you success.
-Mehazabien Chowdhury
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