A second attempt to auction the family home of Myanmar’s imprisoned former leader Aung San Suu Kyi has failed after no bidders showed up, likely deterred by the court-ordered asking price of $US142 million ($A214 million).
Suu Kyi spent 15 years in the home under house arrest, hosting visiting dignitaries including US president Barack Obama, secretary of state Hillary Clinton and UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon, and many see it as a historical landmark in her non-violent struggle against military rule, for which she won the Nobel Peace Prize.
The minimum sale price of 300 billion kyats was a reduction from the initial attempt in March to get 315 billion kyats, about $US150 million at official rates.
With black-market exchange rates, which better reflect the real value of the kyat – which has been plummeting – the March asking price was about $US90 million and the current price was closer to $US46 million – still a lot to pay in a country in the middle of a civil war where nearly half the people are living in poverty, according to the United Nations.
Proceeds from the sale of the 7800-square-metre lakeside property in Yangon were to be split between Suu Kyi and her estranged older brother.
Suu Kyi’s lawyers had challenged the auction order.
The attempted auction was held on Thursday in front of the closed gates of the property, which has served as an unofficial party headquarters and a political shrine for the country’s pro-democracy movement.
It lasted less than one minute before a district court official announced there had been no bidders and she ended the proceedings.
The court will continue to handle the auction process but the details are not yet known.
The two-storey colonial-style building in Yangonwas given decades ago by the government to Suu Kyi’s mother, Khin Kyi, after her husband, independence hero General Aung San, was assassinated in July 1947.
Suu Kyi, 79, remained there after her 2010 release from house arrest until moving in 2012 to the capital, Naypyitaw, to serve in parliament.
She became the nation’s leader after a 2015 general election.
Her government was ousted in an army takeover in February 2021 and Suu Kyi is serving a combined 27-year sentence after being convicted of a string of criminal charges.
Her supporters and independent analysts say the charges were concocted to discredit her and legitimise the military’s seizure of power.