On January 18th, Japanese language property portal site At Home announced the number of municipalities participating in the AtHome Akiya Bank has reached 601 out of Japan’s total of 1,700 municipalities as of December 31st, 2021.

Since then, according to the ticker on portal site top page, 8 more municipalities have signed on bringing the total to 609.

At the time of writing, the akiya portal site is listing 5,000 plus listings nationwide and according to AtHome, more than 6,000 akiya purchases have been facilitated through the portal since inception. 

AtHome’s akiya site was originally launched in October 2017 with the site top page being redesigned in April 2020.  

Leveraging the same property upload interface used in the company’s main market property portal site, municipalities can upload their listings to one central, searchable site for consumers to peruse. 

Once the consumer sees a listing they wish to know more about, they inquire directly to the municipality for more information.

Both AtHome’s portal and the municipalities offer services in Japanese only and it is important to remember that the city office workers responding to your inquiry are not real estate agents but civil servants.  

Given the nuance and complexities surrounding each different city office managing their akiya bank, it is highly recommended you hire the services of an akiya specialist.

Parker J. Allen, co-founder of Akiya & Inaka, which specialises in helping foreign nationals acquire real estate in the Japanese countryside, said, “AtHome's platform gives people already interested in akiya access to more information, but given that its listings fall short of the national estimate as of 2018 by 3 orders of magnitude, their current listing count is just the tip of the iceberg.  

“Hopefully, the spotlight on abandoned and empty homes being advertised will encourage more owners to put them on the market, because if more owners see that buyers can access their listings easier, then that is something that will jumpstart the market.”

Matt Ketchum, also of Akiya & Inaka, agrees and adds.  “​​The akiya problem is more complex than just convincing owners to sell.  More so than traditional real estate, the fragmentation of the akiya listings requires an enormous amount of sifting through often incomplete information to match a property to a particular buyer's needs.

“​​The akiya problem is more complex than just convincing owners to sell.  More so than traditional real estate, the fragmentation of the akiya listings requires an enormous amount of sifting through often incomplete information to match a property to a particular buyer's needs."

According to AtHome, the total number of sales contracts executed as reported by the participating municipalities exceeds 6,000 properties.

Further Reading

AtHome Akiya Bank Portal Site Press Release (Japanese only; January, 2022)

What Everyone Gets Wrong About Akiya in Japan (REthink Tokyo; July, 2021)