Which Direction Does My House Face?

Your house faces the direction you look when you stand at the front door and look out towards the street. So if you walk out of the front door heading south, it is a south-facing house. To find it, search your address on the map above, tap the middle of the house, then tap two points along the roof edge above the front door — or stand in the doorway and use the phone compass.

Use a satellite map. Online maps put north at the top, so find your house, picture yourself stepping out of the front door, and see which way you would be walking. The finder on this page does this for you and gives the exact degrees. Without a map, remember that the sun rises in the east and sets in the west: if the front of the house gets the morning sun, it faces roughly east.

It is based on the front door. For most homes the front door looks out to the street, so both give the same answer. On a corner plot, or when the front door is on the side of the house, use the direction the front door looks out. The roads decide the facing of the plot, which Vastu judges separately.

Go by the front door. In Vastu, a house faces the direction you look when you step out of the main front door, even when the gate, driveway, garage and road are on another side. For example, a house with its gate or driveway on an east road but its front door opening to the north is a north-facing house. The road side still matters, but for judging the plot itself.

The way its main front door opens. A corner plot has roads on two sides, and Vastu judges the plot by that pair of roads (north and east together is rated best, south and west the hardest), but the house itself faces the direction of its front door.

It will face the way the main door opens on your house plan. Usually the door faces the road, so the house faces the plot's road side; if the door opens to another side, the house faces that side instead. To find which way the road side faces, read the north arrow on the plot's layout plan, or use the map finder on this page on the empty plot: tap its middle, then two points along the edge beside the road.

Not always. A listing may give the side of the street the address is on, or the direction you look at the house from the street, which is the opposite of Vastu facing. In Vastu the house faces the way you look when you step out of the main front door. Check it with the finder on this page.

In Vastu, north- and east-facing homes are traditionally preferred, though every facing can work with the main door in the right place. For comfort, it depends on your climate: in a hot climate, such as most of India or the southern US, a north- or east-facing front stays cooler in the afternoon; in a cold climate, a south-facing front gets the most winter sun. A north-facing house has its back garden on the sunny south side.

A north-facing house has its front door looking out to the north. North of the equator the front stays shaded most of the day, while the back faces south and gets sun all day, so the front rooms stay cool. In Vastu it is one of the two most favoured facings.

In Vastu, a south-facing house is workable; the position of the main door along the front wall matters most. For sunlight, north of the equator a south-facing front gets sun for most of the day, so the front rooms are bright and warm in winter. In a hot climate the front can heat up in summer, so shade on the south side helps.

Online maps use true north, so the finder on this page needs no correction. A phone or hand compass reads magnetic north. The gap depends on where you live: about 1–2° across India, a few degrees in the UK and Europe, and up to about 15° in parts of the US. The VastuReport phone compass corrects for this using your location.

Usually within a degree or two. The facing is measured at right angles to the front edge of the roof, the same way a Vastu consultant stands square to the front wall with a compass. Any two points along that edge give the same answer, and the further apart they are, the more accurate it is. Each of the 8 directions covers 45°, so a degree or two only matters when a house sits close to the line between two directions. The result tells you when that happens; zoom in and drag the dots right onto the edge.

Yes. Vastu Shastra uses the facing direction to decide where the main door should sit, and how the rooms inside should be arranged. Each facing has its own good and bad door positions (padas) along the front wall. The guide for your direction explains them, and the free Vastu plot check scores your facing along with the plot shape and the roads around it.