No bids as house of Myanmar’s Suu Kyi auctioned again

YANGON: The lakeside mansion where Myanmar democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi spent years under house arrest was put up for auction for the second time on Thursday but once again attracted no bids, AFP reporters said.

The two-storey house and 1.9 acres of land were put up for sale following a decades-long dispute over the property between the Nobel laureate -- who has been detained since a 2021 military coup -- and her brother.

The auction set the floor for bidding at 300 billion kyats -- around $140 million at the junta´s official exchange rate of 2,100 kyat to the dollar.

Similar-sized properties in upmarket Yangon neighbourhoods might go for around one or two million dollars, a local realtor told AFP in March.

Ahead of the auction, a small crowd of mostly journalists gathered outside the colonial-era house on leafy University Avenue, a few doors from the US embassy.

Above the gate, a portrait of Suu Kyi´s father, independence hero Aung San, watched over the proceedings while armed police stood guard behind sandbags.

A notice pasted to the door by a local court advertised “Buildings and every heirloom under the name of Daw Khin Kyi” -- Suu Kyi´s mother.

An auctioneer came out of the compound and asked three times for any buyers, then announced the auction was unsuccessful when none came forward.