‘Blood stains on the wall?’: ‘creepy’ murder-suicide flat in China sells for 30 per cent under market value, causing online debate on bargain versus gory past
- A home where a man killed his wife and then himself in a gruesome murder-suicide has sold for the first time since the crime took place
- The auction attracted just one buyer who made a single bid seconds before closing at the minimum asking price
The online auction of a murder-suicide home in China has trended on mainland social media after it attracted nearly 40,000 views and sold for 730,000 yuan (US$106,000) lower than the listed market price of 2.43 million yuan.
The flat in Hangzhou in Zhejiang province, eastern China, fetched 1.7 million yuan(US$248,000) at auction on March 14, 30 per cent less than the asking price. According to the Hangzhou Daily, there was only one registered bidder for the seventh-floor flat with a gross area of 83.09 square metres at the time of the sale.
The former owner bought the flat in November 2018. A sentence marked in red on the property listing highlighted a murder-suicide that occurred in the flat and that a blood stain on the wall in the master bedroom had been covered by wallpaper.
In April 2020, the previous owner, in his 30s, murdered his wife and then killed himself by jumping out of one of the flat’s windows. Their daughter, who was three years old at the time, survived as an orphan.
The specific details of the case were not entirely clear, but it was reported that the late couple had been in debt and owed 1.7 million yuan. Shortly before the murder-suicide, the couple’s bank started legal action for the return of the money owed by foreclosing on their mortgage and putting their home up for sale.
The auction of the flat earlier this month set the starting price at 1.7 million yuan with the rate of price increases at 10,000 yuan (US$1,500) per interval. Two seconds before the auction ended, the solo bidder made a single bid at the starting price.