(ECNS) -- Michael Jackson's sprawling Neverland Valley Ranch went up for auction Tuesday on Taobao, a shopping platform owned by e-commerce giant Alibaba.
The ranch, modeled after the fantasy island in the story of Peter Pan, was given a starting price of 500 million yuan ($79 million) and only one bidder participated, with no bids placed by 3 p.m. Tuesday.
The auction lasted only for one day, as a prelude to the website's Double 11 shopping frenzy.
The estate has been valued at 640 million yuan. It has 22 buildings, including guest houses, apartments and even a movie theater. Surrounded by mountains, there's also a swimming pool and basketball and tennis courts.
Jackson paid $19.5 million for the ranch in 1987 and lived there for over 15 years. Later, the real estate investment firm Colony Capital bought out the late King of Pop's $23 million mortgage on Neverland in 2008.
In July, a $258-million luxury resort in Portugal, comprising 1,500 high-end villas and apartments, was put on auction on Tabao to meet growing demand from wealthy Chinese individuals for overseas realty investment.
Since December 2014, Taobao's auction branch has brought properties from more than 10 countries under the e-hammer for bidders from China. About 60 percent of the overseas properties, including islands in Fiji, castles in Italy and chateaus in France, have been auctioned off online, according to Lu Weixing, the general manager in charge of the auction branch.
