How to know the facing of a flat: door, balcony or tower?

When a broker says "east facing", ask which of these is meant. In a tower, they often point different ways.

In many flats the main door opens onto an inner corridor or lobby, and the balcony is on the opposite side. So a flat a broker calls "east facing" for its balcony can have a door that looks west. Neither is wrong. They are describing different things.

Vastu16's facing pages use the main door definition: a home faces the direction you look towards when you stand at the main door and look out [1]. Our page on east facing homes gives the readings for each zone on that side.

The entrance zone matters more than the facing word. Vastu16 scores the zone the door sits in, measured from the centre of the flat, not the direction the door looks [1]. A door can look east and still sit in a different zone. Take a door on the east wall near the south-east corner. Looking out, it faces about 90 degrees. Measured from the centre, it may sit at about 125 degrees, which is the SE zone in the 16-zone school (neutral for an entrance) and the SE direction in the 8-direction school (avoid, 2 of 5).

Our main door readings for every zone list the rest.

A phone compass reads magnetic North. Android computes a device's heading relative to magnetic North [2], and iPhones report a magnetic heading and, when they know your location, a true heading as well [3].

Steel is the problem in flats. Phone magnetometers are disturbed by electronic devices and steel reinforcement in buildings [4], and indoor readings are noisy [5]. NOAA notes local magnetic anomalies of 3 to 4 degrees are not uncommon, and over 10 degrees is possible but uncommon [6]. A steel door frame or a safety grille right next to the phone can add more.

So step back from the frame. Hold the phone flat, screen up, a metre inside the door, with the top of the phone pointing out of the door. Calibrate first with a figure-8 movement [2]. Our phone Vastu compass shows the heading in degrees and its zone under both schools.

Check the compass against the map before you trust it. Find the tower on a satellite map, reset it to a flat, north-up view (in Google Earth, the up arrow on the compass does this) [7], and work out which side of the tower your flat's door faces. A satellite map shows true North; the gap between true and magnetic North is the magnetic declination [8].

In India the declination is small. NOAA's World Magnetic Model gives about 0 degrees for Mumbai, 1.3 degrees east for Delhi and 1.1 degrees west for Bengaluru, as checked on 2 Oct 2026 [9]. So in an Indian flat, a large gap between the map and the compass usually means steel, not declination. Our guide on finding North for Vastu covers the map method step by step.

The plan helps too. Mark the main door on the plan, draw an arrow pointing out of it, and compare the arrow with North on the plan, once North is verified.

The facing word is a shorthand. The report uses bearings. Vastu16 takes the outline of the flat, finds its centre, and reads every room by its compass bearing from that centre, using verified North [1]. The main door is read as a single point. If a room lies within 5 degrees of a zone line, the report says so, because a small error in North would change it.

That is why we ask for a bearing in degrees, not a word. "East" covers 45 degrees in the 8-direction school and three different 16-zone zones. For what else to check in a flat, see our page on Vastu for a flat.

Tradition

• Facing is read from the main door, looking out: Vastu practice as used on Vastu16's facing pages [1].
• Entrance ratings by zone under both schools: Vastu16's rule table, a draft pending consultant review [1].

Physical fact

• Phone compasses read magnetic North; iPhones can also report true North: Android and Apple documentation [2][3].
• Steel reinforcement and electronics disturb phone magnetometers: Sensors 2023 [4].
• Local anomalies of 3 to 4 degrees are not uncommon: NOAA [6].
• Declination in Indian metros is about 1.3 degrees or less: NOAA World Magnetic Model 2025 [9].

Our free tool lets you measure the door's zone from the centre of your flat. You upload the plan, confirm the rooms and verify North by satellite map and compass, and it shows the door's zone and every room's reading under both schools, with a note when a room sits near a zone line. It does not decide which facing a broker meant.