Unfinished skyscraper auction fails on Taobao

TAIYUAN - The auction of an unfinished skyscraper, with a starting price of 550 million yuan (around $84 million), has failed on Taobao, Alibaba's e-commerce platform.

A second auction will be held at the end of January or the beginning of February, according to the organizer of the event, the Shanxi Provincial Higher People's Court.

Located in Taiyuan, capital of North China's Shanxi province, the unfinished building has a combined floor space of more than 76,000 square meters. Originally designed to be a hotel, the 39-floor unfinished building, along with the land it sits on, was publicly auctioned between Jan 2 and 3, the court said.

Shanxi Jinhao International Hotel Limited Company invested in and built the hotel, and construction started in 2006. In 2010, major construction work was completed and the hotel was expected to open to the public in 2011.

But due to funding shortfalls on the part of the developer, the project was suspended, the court said.

In order to more effectively and transparently handle assets seized in lawsuits, almost all Chinese courts have registered on Taobao's judicial sales platform since the service was launched in 2012.

Alibaba's figures show about 330,000 items, including cars and residential and factory buildings, have been auctioned on the platform.

Two Boeing 747 freighters were successfully auctioned in November for a total of 320 million yuan, while the third plane sold for 146 million yuan in December.