A new apartment building in Sydney hasn’t included the numbers four and 14 in the elevator buttons.
The Daily Mail speculate that the disappearance of the two numbers could be because some numbers are bad luck and have negative associations in Chinese.
In Mandarin Chinese, the look and sound of the word ‘four’ is very similar to the word ‘death’, which is seen as unlucky.
This superstition is common in East Asian and Southeast Asian regions such as China, Japan, Taiwan, Malaysia and Korea.
A photo of the elevator buttons with the missing floors was posted on Reddit and sparked a conversation about increasing foreign investment in Australian property.
“I visited a new apartment development in Sydney City, was surprised to see that the 4th and 14th floor were removed so as not to deter Chinese buyers,” the Reddit post reads.
“Not surprised at all by this. If the developers know they are in an area that can sell to Chinese buyers they’ll take any advantage they can get,” one user replied.
“Sure, it’s all superstition but when there are people who are willing to pay extra for buildings that don’t have a number four – well then it’s all about the money.”
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