Akiya properties in Japan are “abandoned” properties (normally in rural areas) in a variety of condition. Some of them are vacant/abandoned in the sense that there has been no next-of-kin to claim them. Others are abandoned/vacant because of depopulation in that area. Japan’s estate tax (which can increase exponentially over each generation a property is passed on), eventually creates an issue where some decide it isn’t worth laying claim to the property. There are “loopholes” to get around this including turning the property into a parking lot or some sort of accommodation (business hotels being one example).
It’s obviously not ideal if there was a desire to keep the property as a residence though. And obviously, there is an expense involved in turning the property into a parking lot or something like a hostel/business hotel. In the case of a depopulated location, there is not much incentive to do anything. The end result is a growing number of akiya.
I previously was interested in acquiring akiya properties with the intention of repairing/remodeling (especially if they were low enough in price including the fees/taxes). What I wasn’t interested in were those “free” properties since many of those have all sort of conditions attached to them (nothing is ever free). There are problems though with most akiya (especially infrastructure related ones that can turn into the exploding parts problem). Like you really don’t know how intact the plumbing/pipes are until water service is turned on. It’s also a similar situation with the sewage (or in some places, septic system).
While there are a number of portal frontends to municipal databases of akiya (like All Akiyas, Akiya Japan, Akiya Mart, etc), that is all that they are (with machine translation). I primarily knew of KORYOYA (which maintains listings for properties mainly in the Kansai area) due to the fact that I’ve been watching the site owners YouTube channel “Good Old Houses Japan” (where he has acquired a few kyo-machiya and renovated them along with highlighting some of the issues involved via even that route). But he makes it clear there is currently no assistance provided for akiya listings on his site. Thus, I was personally looking for actual contacts and not these frontend listing sites (where you have to jump through hoops). Someone mentioned Akiya Banks to me (which I hadn’t heard of, but it also turned out to be just another listing site).
I know there are also a couple of other YouTuber’s who seem to be useful resources, but some are essentially just pushing click-bait in order to sell their “services” as brokers/translators to the entire process. Thanks but no thanks. Basically, I came to the conclusion that the entire process with akiya properties is not worth the headaches even if the base property (sans fees) is incredibly low for many of them. I’ve therefore gone back to looking for properties (preference being kominka) that have been lived in and are being sold on the real estate market.
