Method for providing vacant house information, program accomplishing the same, and vacant house information providing system

Abstract

To provide a technology of comprehensively extracting vacant houses in a unit of an arbitrary area (e.g., a unit of a jurisdictional area of a local town).SOLUTION: A vacant house determining process executed by a server (S980) includes steps for: initializing a counter of a record of a database for occupancies involved in a local town (S1000); outputting, if a meter is removed from an occupancy (step S1010: YES), such an occupancy as an estimated vacant house (S1020); outputting, if the occupancy has no electric power contract (step S1030: NO), such an occupancy as an estimated vacant house (S1040); outputting, when electric power has not been consumed for a certain time period (step S1050: NO), such an occupancy as an estimated vacant house (S1060); and repeating the steps S1010 to S1070 until the determination process for all occupancies involved in the local town completes (step S1080: YES).SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 10

Description

[Technical field]

[0001] The present disclosure relates to a technology for determining whether a house is vacant, and more particularly, to a technology for providing list information indicating whether each house within a specified range is vacant. [Background technology]

[0002] As the number of vacant houses and the vacancy rate increase, measures to deal with the problem of vacant houses are urgently needed. The Act on Special Measures for Vacant Houses requires municipalities to carry out surveys of the actual situation of vacant houses, provide guidance to vacant house owners on appropriate management, and promote the utilization of vacant house sites.

[0003] Regarding the understanding of vacant house information, for example, JP 2019-207675 A (Patent Document 1) discloses "a vacant house determination system, a vacant house determination method, and a vacant house determination program that can accurately and in real time determine whether an input address is vacant or not." In addition, JP 2021-157634 A (Patent Document 2) discloses a technology for "effectively providing vacant room and vacant house information that does not allow personal information to be identified from the provided information." [Prior art documents] [Patent documents]

[0004] [Patent Document 1] JP 2019-207675 A [Patent Document 2] JP 2021-157634 A Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0005] In order for local governments to grasp information on vacant houses, comprehensive information on vacant houses is required, rather than merely determining whether or not a vacant house exists at each individual address.

[0006] The present disclosure has been made in consideration of the above-mentioned background, and an object according to one aspect is to provide information that comprehensively represents vacant houses existing within a certain area. [Means for solving the problem]

[0007] (1) According to one embodiment, a computer-implemented method for providing vacant house information is provided, the method including the steps of accessing a database representing the status of lifelines of each house belonging to a specified municipality, determining whether each house belonging to the municipality is vacant based on the database representing the status of lifelines of each house belonging to the municipality, and outputting a list of the determination results of whether each house belonging to the municipality is vacant.

[0008] (2) In a certain aspect, the lifeline includes electricity. Each house belonging to the municipality includes a plurality of houses with electricity contracts at the same address. The determining step includes a step of classifying the vacant house as a managed vacant house when another house at the same address has the same contractor as the contractor of the vacant house determined to be vacant and electricity is being used at the other house, and a step of separating the vacant house as a vacant house presumed to be vacant when another house at the same address has the same contractor as the contractor of the vacant house determined to be vacant and electricity is not being used at the other house.

[0009] (3) In some aspects, the use or non-use of electricity is determined based on the amount of usage at a predetermined time during a day.

[0010] (4) In one aspect, each house belonging to the municipality includes an apartment building. The determining step includes a step of determining that the apartment building is vacant if all houses included in the apartment building are determined to be vacant.

[0011] (5) In a certain aspect, the determining step includes a step of determining that a house for which no contract for a lifeline has existed is vacant if the contract has not existed for a predetermined period of time.

[0012] (6) In one aspect, the determining step includes a step of determining that a house in which a lifeline is not in use is vacant if the lifeline has not been used for a predetermined period of time.

[0013] (7) In one aspect, the determining step includes a step of determining that the house is vacant if a meter that measures usage of a lifeline has been removed from the house.

[0014] (8) In a certain aspect, the determining step includes a step of determining that the house is not vacant if a meter measuring usage of a lifeline has not been removed from the house, a contract for the lifeline exists, and the lifeline has been consumed for a certain period of time, and a step of presuming that the house is vacant if the meter has been removed, if a contract for the lifeline does not exist, or if the lifeline has not been consumed for a certain period of time.

[0015] (9) According to another embodiment, there is provided a program for causing a computer to execute any of the methods described above.

[0016] (10) According to yet another embodiment, there is provided a vacant house information providing system, comprising: a memory storing a program for implementing any one of the methods described above; and a processor for executing the program.

[0017] According to one aspect, a computer can provide information that comprehensively describes vacant houses that exist in a certain area (e.g., a municipality), making it possible to comprehensively check whether or not there are vacant houses.

[0018] The above and other objects, features, aspects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of the invention taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. [Brief description of the drawings]

[0019] [Figure 1] FIG. 1 illustrates an example of a system 100 for estimating vacant house status according to a certain aspect. [Diagram 2] FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the hardware configuration of a computer system 200 that realizes a terminal 110 or a server 130. [Diagram 3] 13 is a diagram showing an overview of a process performed by a server 130 according to an embodiment to estimate a vacant house. [Figure 4] 13 is a diagram conceptually showing an example of a list of vacant houses stored in the hard disk 5 of the server 130. FIG. [Diagram 5] This is a diagram illustrating an example of classification as a managed vacant house or a suspected vacant house. [Figure 6] 1 is a diagram showing one mode of data storage in a hard disk 5 provided in a server 130. FIG. [Figure 7] 1 is a diagram showing one mode of data storage in a hard disk 5 provided in a server 130. FIG. [Figure 8] 1 is a diagram showing one mode of data storage in a hard disk 5 provided in a server 130. FIG. [Figure 9] 11 is a flowchart showing an overview of a process executed by the server 130 to estimate whether each house existing within a specified range (for example, within a municipality) is vacant or not. [Figure 10] 13 is a flowchart showing details of a vacant house determination process (step S980) executed by the server 130. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0020] Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. In the following description, the same components are denoted by the same reference numerals. Their names and functions are also the same. Therefore, detailed description thereof will not be repeated.

[0021] <System Overview> With reference to Fig. 1, an embodiment of a system 100 according to the present embodiment will be described. Fig. 1 is a diagram showing an example of a system 100 that estimates the status of a vacant house according to a certain aspect. The system 100 includes a plurality of terminals 110-1, 110-2, 110-n, and a server 130. The plurality of terminals 110-1, 110-2, 110-n are collectively referred to as terminals 110. The terminals 110 and the server 130 are connected to each other via a network 190 so as to be able to communicate with each other. An example of the network 190 is the Internet. The configurations of the terminals 110 and the server 130 will be described later.

[0022] In one aspect, the server 130 holds information on lifelines in each house. Lifelines are infrastructure necessary for maintaining life, such as electricity, gas, water, telephone lines, and other communication lines, which are provided by service users through contracts concluded between service providers. Houses may include not only places where individuals live, such as detached houses and apartment buildings, but also places where business activities are conducted, such as factories, stores, offices, and business establishments.

[0023] The server 130 holds, for each house, contract information for each lifeline and the amount of service usage of the lifeline. For example, if the lifeline is electricity, the server 130 stores contract information for each house, including whether or not there is an electricity supply contract, and the electricity usage status when a contract is concluded.

[0024] In a certain aspect, the server 130 judges whether each house is vacant or not based on the presence or absence of a contract for the lifeline, the status of the usage meter, and the consumption amount of the service provided by the lifeline for a certain period of time. The details of the judgment process will be described later.

[0025] The terminal 110 is used by an employee of a local government (prefecture, city, town, or village). In another aspect, the terminal 110 may be used by a provider of a lifeline service (electric power company, gas company, waterworks, communication company, etc.) or a real estate company.

[0026] <Hardware configuration> The configuration of an information processing device constituting system 100 will be described with reference to Fig. 2. Fig. 2 is a block diagram showing the hardware configuration of a computer system 200 that realizes terminal 110 or server 130.

[0027] The main components of the computer system 200 include a CPU (Central Processing Unit) 1 that executes a program, a mouse 2 and a keyboard 3 that receive instructions input by a user of the computer system 200, a RAM 4 that volatilely stores data generated by the execution of the program by the CPU 1 or data input via the mouse 2 or keyboard 3, a hard disk 5 that nonvolatilely stores data, an optical disk drive 6, a communication interface (I / F) 7, and a monitor 8. The components are mutually connected by a data bus. A CD-ROM (Compact Disc - Read Only Memory) 9 or other optical disks can be loaded into the optical disk drive 6.

[0028] The processing in the computer system 200 is realized by each piece of hardware and software executed by the CPU 1. Such software may be pre-stored in the hard disk 5. In addition, the software may be stored in a CD-ROM 9 or other recording medium and distributed as a computer program. Alternatively, the software may be provided as a downloadable application program by an information provider connected to the Internet. Such software is read from the recording medium by the optical disk drive 6 or other reading device, or downloaded via the communication interface 7, and then temporarily stored in the hard disk 5. The software is read from the hard disk 5 by the CPU 1 and stored in the RAM 4 in the form of an executable program. The CPU 1 executes the program.

[0029] Each component constituting the computer system 200 shown in Fig. 2 is a general one. Therefore, one of the essential parts of the technical idea according to the present disclosure can be said to be software stored in the RAM 4, the hard disk 5, the CD-ROM 9 or other recording medium, or software downloadable via a network. The data recording medium may include a non-transitory computer-readable data recording medium. Note that the operation of each piece of hardware in the computer system 200 is well known, and therefore detailed description will not be repeated.

[0030] The recording medium is not limited to a CD-ROM, a FD (Flexible Disk), or a hard disk, but may also be a medium that carries a program in a fixed manner, such as an SSD (Solid State Drive), a magnetic tape, an optical disk (MO (Magnetic Optical Disc) / MD (Mini Disc) / DVD (Digital Versatile Disc)), an IC (Integrated Circuit) card (including a memory card), an optical card, a mask ROM, an EPROM (Electronically Programmable Read-Only Memory), an EEPROM (Electronically Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory), or a semiconductor memory such as a flash ROM.

[0031] The program referred to here includes not only a program that can be directly executed by a CPU, but also a source program format program, a compressed program, an encrypted program, and the like.

[0032] The computer system 200 may be realized as a notebook type, desktop type or other computer device, or as a portable information and communication terminal such as a smartphone or a tablet terminal.

[0033] <Outline of vacant house estimation> An example of a process for estimating a vacant house will be outlined with reference to Fig. 3. Fig. 3 is a diagram showing an overview of a process performed by server 130 according to an embodiment to estimate a vacant house.

[0034] In step S310, the server 130 accesses the hard disk 5 and extracts contracts by referring to the contract information and location information stored in the hard disk 5. The contracts extracted are, for example, contracts for each house existing in a municipality designated for estimating vacant houses.

[0035] In step S320, the server 130 determines whether each house is vacant. For example, the server 130 determines whether the house is vacant based on the extracted contract information, the presence or absence of a lifeline (e.g., electricity) supply, and the supply amount (power consumption). Here, the power consumption is an amount that is grasped in detail at a set time interval (e.g., every 30 minutes, every hour, etc.).

[0036] In step S330, the server 130 classifies the type of the vacant house determined to be vacant based on the contractor information and the apartment register stored in the hard disk 5.

[0037] In step S340, the server 130 generates a list of vacant houses and displays it on the monitor 8, or transmits the list of vacant houses to each terminal 110.

[0038] <Example of the configuration of the server 130> (1) In a certain situation, the CPU 1 of the server 130 capable of providing vacant house information accepts an input designating a municipality and accesses a database showing the status of lifelines of each house belonging to the designated municipality. For example, when a user of the server 130 selects a specific municipality from a list of municipalities displayed on the monitor 8, vacant house information of houses belonging to the municipality is provided. The CPU 1 determines whether each house belonging to the designated municipality is vacant or not based on the database showing the status of lifelines of each house belonging to the municipality, and outputs the determination results of whether each house belonging to the municipality is vacant or not as a list.

[0039] (2) In a certain aspect, the lifeline is electricity. Each house belonging to a municipality includes a plurality of houses with electricity contracts at the same address. When a contract holder of a vacant house determined to be vacant is the same as a contract holder of another house at the same address, and electricity is being used at the other house, the CPU1 classifies the vacant house as a managed vacant house. Also, when a contract holder of a vacant house determined to be vacant is the same as a contract holder of a vacant house determined to be vacant is the same as a contract holder of another house at the same address, and electricity is not being used at the other house, the CPU1 separates the vacant house as a vacant house presumed to be vacant.

[0040] (3) In a certain aspect, the CPU 1 determines whether or not power is being used based on the amount of power used during a predetermined period of time in a day. The predetermined period of time is, for example, 30 minutes, one hour, etc., and can be arbitrarily set according to the settings of a smart meter that measures the amount of power used.

[0041] (4) In a certain situation, each house belonging to a local government includes an apartment building. When all houses included in the apartment building are determined to be vacant, the CPU 1 determines that the apartment building is vacant. When a lifeline contract has not existed for a predetermined period of time, the CPU 1 determines that the house for which the contract does not exist is vacant. Here, the predetermined period of time is, for example, six months or one year going back from the date on which the method is executed, but this period of time can be arbitrarily set by the user of the server 130.

[0042] (5) In a certain situation, when a lifeline contract has not existed for a predetermined period of time, CPU 1 determines that a house for which no contract exists is vacant.

[0043] (6) In a certain aspect, when the lifeline has not been used for the predetermined period of time, CPU 1 determines that the house in which the lifeline is not being used is vacant.

[0044] (7) In a certain situation, CPU 1 determines that a house is vacant if a meter that measures the usage of a lifeline has been removed from the house.

[0045] (8) At a certain stage, CPU1 determines that a house is not vacant if a meter measuring the usage of a lifeline has not been removed from the house, a contract for the lifeline exists, and the lifeline has been consumed for a certain period of time, and presumes that the house is vacant if the meter has been removed, if there is no contract for the lifeline, or if the lifeline has not been consumed for a certain period of time.

[0046] <Example of vacant house list> An example of a vacant house list generated by server 130 will be described with reference to Fig. 4. Fig. 4 is a diagram conceptually showing an example of a vacant house list stored in hard disk 5 of server 130.

[0047] When the server 130 generates data for the vacant house list, the hard disk 5 stores the vacant house list as a table 400. The table 400 includes a number, a building type, an owner classification, a contract status, and a remark. The number identifies each house. The building type indicates whether the house is a detached house or an apartment building.

[0048] Owner classification indicates the type of ownership of the house. The types of ownership are private vacant house, corporate vacant house, managed vacant house, mixed corporate / individual, and unknown. Vacant private house indicates a house owned by an individual that is vacant. Vacant corporate house indicates a house owned by a corporation that is vacant. Managed vacant house refers to a vacant house when there are multiple electricity contracts within the same address, the owner of the house judged to be vacant exists, there is a contract holder (same name or phone number) who is the same as the owner of the house judged to be vacant, and electricity is being used (resident). Mixed corporate / individual refers to a house that is shared by a corporation and an individual. Unknown refers to a state in which the owner of the house is not immediately known because the meter has been removed.

[0049] The contract status indicates the status of the relevant lifeline contract (for example, electricity supply contract, gas supply contract, telephone line contract, etc.). In the case of an apartment building, the contract status differs depending on the house, so the apartment building as a whole may have a mixture of on-supply and off-supply statuses.

[0050] The notes indicate information entered by the operator of the server 130 as the status of each building and other reference information.

[0051] Managed vacant houses will be described with reference to Fig. 5. Fig. 5 is a diagram illustrating an example of classification as managed vacant houses or estimated vacant houses.

[0052] Case (A) When there are multiple electricity contracts within the same address, if there is a contract holder (with the same name or telephone number) who is the same as the contract holder of the house presumed to be vacant and who is using electricity (occupied), the house will be classified as a managed vacant house (also called a "managed vacant house").

[0053] Case (B) If there are multiple electricity contracts at the same address and all of the houses are presumed to be vacant, they are not managed and therefore all of the houses are classified as "presumed vacant houses." A presumed vacant house is a house that is presumed to be vacant.

[0054] <Data Structure> The data structure of server 130 will be described with reference to Fig. 6 to Fig. 9. Fig. 6 to Fig. 9 each show an example of data storage in hard disk 5 included in server 130.

[0055] As shown in FIG. 6, the hard disk 5 holds tables 610, 620, 630, and 640. The table 610 holds data on electricity (electricity data). The data is acquired by a smart meter, and is data on low voltage consumed in a home or the like. The data includes a supply point identification number, a meter ID (Identification), a power flow category, a measurement date, and an amount of electricity consumed every 30 minutes. The supply point identification number identifies the location where the smart meter is installed (the address where electricity is supplied). The meter ID identifies the smart meter. The power flow category identifies the direction of movement of electricity. The measurement date indicates the date or period when the amount of electricity consumption was measured. The period is set in units of 30 minutes, for example, but is not limited to 30 minutes. For example, it may be set in units of 15 minutes or 1 hour.

[0056] Table 610 includes fields 611, 612, 613, and 614. Field 611 identifies an item included in table 610. Field 612 contains the name of the item. Field 613 holds a value corresponding to the item. Field 614 holds a flag indicating whether the item is a primary key.

[0057] Table 620 holds data related to the supply point identification number. The data includes the supply point identification number, the demand / generation classification code, the new construction and simultaneous abolition flag, the abolition date, the removal date, the address code, the address, the building name, the building number, the room number, and the building type. These items can be easily understood by those skilled in the art. Therefore, detailed explanations of each item will not be repeated.

[0058] Table 620 includes fields 621, 622, 623, and 624. Field 621 identifies an item included in table 620. Field 622 contains the name of the item. Field 623 holds a value corresponding to the item. Field 624 holds a flag indicating whether the item is a primary key.

[0059] Table 630 holds data related to demand contractors. The data includes a supply point identification number, contractor name (kanji, kana), contractor telephone number, contract type code, street light flag, and unmetered code. These items are easily understood by those skilled in the art. Therefore, detailed description of each item will not be repeated.

[0060] Table 630 includes fields 631, 632, 633, and 634. Field 631 identifies an item included in table 630. Field 632 contains the name of the item. Field 633 holds a value corresponding to the item. Field 634 holds a flag indicating whether the item is a primary key.

[0061] Table 640 holds data related to the meters. The data includes a supply point specific number, a meter ID, and a meter identification number. These items are easily understood by those skilled in the art. Therefore, detailed descriptions of each item will not be repeated.

[0062] Table 640 includes fields 641, 642, 643, and 644. Field 641 identifies an item included in table 640. Field 642 contains the name of the item. Field 643 holds a value corresponding to the item. Field 644 holds a flag indicating whether the item is a primary key.

[0063] 7, the hard disk 5 further holds tables 710 and 720. The table 710 holds data related to the identification of a supply point. The data includes a supply point identification number and a related supply point identification number. These items are easily understood by those skilled in the art. Therefore, detailed description of each item will not be repeated.

[0064] Table 710 includes fields 711, 712, 713, and 714. Field 711 identifies an item included in table 710. Field 712 includes the name of the item. Field 713 holds a specific value of the item. Field 714 holds a flag indicating whether the item is a primary key.

[0065] Table 720 holds data for identifying the location of a supply point. The data includes a supply point identification number, latitude, and longitude. Table 720 includes fields 721, 722, 723, and 724. Field 721 identifies an item included in table 720. Field 722 includes the name of the item. Field 723 holds a specific value of the item. Field 724 holds a flag indicating whether the item is a primary key or not. The supply point identification number is the same as the number specified in table 710. The latitude represents the latitude of the supply point. The longitude represents the longitude of the supply point.

[0066] 8, the hard disk 5 further stores tables 810, 820, and 830. The tables 810, 820, and 830 hold data on the results of vacant house determination performed using the data shown in FIGS.

[0067] Table 810 holds data related to the house assessment results, including the supply point identification number, the meter ID, the assessment date, and attributes.

[0068] Table 810 includes fields 811, 812, 813, and 814. Field 811 identifies an item included in table 810. Field 812 includes the name of the item. Field 813 holds a specific value of the item. Field 814 holds a flag indicating whether the item is a primary key.

[0069] In the area 812, the supply point identification number identifies the supply point. The meter ID identifies the meter (e.g., a smart meter). The date indicates the date on which it was determined whether the house is vacant. The attribute indicates whether the house is vacant.

[0070] Table 820 holds data with a supply point identification number as a key. The data includes a supply point identification number, a contract status, an address code, an address, a building name, a building number, a room number, a building type, a contractor name (in kanji), a contractor name (in kana), a contractor telephone number, a contractor classification, a latitude, and a longitude. These items can be easily understood by a person skilled in the art. Therefore, a detailed description of each item will not be repeated.

[0071] Table 820 includes fields 821, 822, 823, and 824. Field 821 identifies an item included in table 820. Field 822 includes the name of the item. Field 823 holds a specific value of the item. Field 824 holds a flag indicating whether the item is a primary key.

[0072] Table 830 holds data on houses that are determined to be vacant for each house in a specified municipality. The data includes an address code, an address, a building name, a building number, a room number, a building type, a contractor name (in kanji), an owner classification, the number of days without an electricity contract, the number of days without electricity use, the number of days with temporary use, latitude, and longitude. The owner classification indicates whether the owner of the house is an individual or a corporation. The number of days without an electricity contract indicates the number of days during which no electricity supply contract exists for the supply point of the house during a specified period (for example, the past year from the day when the vacant house presumption determination process is performed, etc.). The number of days without electricity use indicates the number of days during which electricity use is not permitted during the specified period. The other items are the same as the items illustrated in FIG. 6 or FIG. 7, and therefore the explanation of the other items will not be repeated.

[0073] <Estimated vacant house> The process for determining whether a house is vacant or not (vacant house estimation) will be described with reference to Fig. 9. Fig. 9 is a flowchart showing an overview of the process executed by the server 130 to estimate whether each house existing in a specified range (for example, a municipality unit) is vacant or not.

[0074] In step S910, the server 130 performs a data cleansing process on the power data stored in the table 610. The data cleansing process includes removing records with missing values ​​in the power consumption amount and removing duplicate records with the same meter ID and date. The server 130 outputs the records after performing the data cleansing process to a database area reserved for performing the process.

[0075] In step S920, server 130 determines the attributes of the meters. Specifically, server 130 classifies the house as either occupied or vacant (no resident) based on the power consumption of each meter over a certain period of time. In a certain situation, in order to not regard a house as occupied if it is used for a short period of time, server 130 may correct the classification of the house to "vacant" if it determines that the house is vacant and power usage within two weeks is confirmed, assuming that the house is used temporarily. Server 130 stores the result of the determination in table 810.

[0076] In step S930, the server 130 executes a data cleansing process on the power data stored in the table 620. When the data cleansing process is executed, the server 130 extracts supply point identification number master data that satisfies all of the following three conditions: (1) the demand / generation classification code is demand, (2) the new installation and simultaneous abolition flag is not new installation and simultaneous abolition, and (3) the address code of the target area.

[0077] In step S940, the server 130 executes a data cleansing process on the power data stored in the table 630. When the data cleansing process is executed, the server 130 extracts, as target subscriber data, a supply point identification number that satisfies all of the following three conditions: (1) the contract type code is electric light, (2) the street light flag is not street light, and (3) the unmetered code is not unmetered.

[0078] In step S950, the server 130 performs name classification. More specifically, the server 130 determines whether or not the characters included in the corporate and other determination data match the contractor name (kanji) and contractor name (kana) for each contract, classifies the contract into one of "corporate contract," "other contract (shared use, parking lot, etc.)," ​​or "individual contract (no match)," and excludes records classified as "other contract (shared use, parking lot, etc.)" from the target contractor data.

[0079] In step S960, the server 130 executes a data cleansing process on the power data stored in the table 640. When the data cleansing process is executed, the server 130 extracts, as target meter data, a supply point identification number that satisfies the following condition, i.e., the meter identification number is a main meter.

[0080] In step S970, the server 130 extracts the target point. More specifically, the server 130 removes records of supply point identification numbers included in the related supply point identification numbers of the related supply point identification number data from the supply point identification number master data. The server 130 extracts data-cleansed points as target supply point identification number determination results (table 820) by internally combining the records of the supply point identification numbers remaining after the removal with the target contractor data (table 630), the target instrument data (table 640), and the coordinate data (table 720).

[0081] In step S980, server 130 executes a vacant house determination process, which will be described later. When this process is executed, it is estimated whether each house existing within a specified range (for example, a ward, city, town, or village) is vacant or not. In one aspect, the range is specified by a user directly inputting the name of a ward, city, town, or village to server 130. In another aspect, the range may be specified by a user arbitrarily inputting an address and selecting one of the wards, cities, towns, or villages identified by the address.

[0082] FIG. 10 is a flowchart showing details of the vacant house determination process (step S980) executed by the server 130.

[0083] In step S1000, the server 130 initializes a counter N of records in the database of buildings contained in the specified municipality (N=1).

[0084] In step S1010, server 130 determines whether the meter has been removed from the building. This determination is made based on a database that indicates the installation status of the meter. If server 130 determines that the meter has been removed (YES in step S1010), it switches control to step S1020. If not (NO in step S1010), server 130 switches control to step S1030.

[0085] In step S1020, server 130 determines that the building is vacant (estimated vacant) and outputs information about the building to the list of estimated vacant houses (table 830). In this case, if the meter was removed within the period of determination (period of extraction for the list of estimated vacant houses), the building will be classified as "estimated vacant" regardless of the removal date.

[0086] In step S1030, server 130 determines whether or not there is an electricity contract for the building. If server 130 determines that there is an electricity contract (YES in step S1030), server 130 switches control to step S1050. If not (NO in step S1030), server 130 switches control to step S1040.

[0087] In step S1040, server 130 determines that the building is vacant (presumed vacant) and outputs information about the building to a list of presumed vacant houses (table 830). For example, if there has been no electricity contract for more than the past six months (180 days), the building is classified as "presumed vacant."

[0088] In step S1050, server 130 determines whether or not power has not been consumed for a certain period of time. If server 130 determines that power has not been consumed for a certain period of time (YES in step S1050), server 130 switches control to step S1060. If not (NO in step S1050), server 130 switches control to step S1070.

[0089] In step S1060, server 130 determines that the building is vacant (presumed vacant) and outputs information about the building to a list of presumed vacant houses (table 830). For example, if the building has not consumed electricity for more than six months in a row, the building is classified as a "presumed vacant house."

[0090] In step S1070, server 130 determines that the building is not estimated to be vacant.

[0091] In step S1080, server 130 determines whether the determination process has been completed for all buildings in the local government. If server 130 determines that the determination process has been completed for all buildings (YES in step S1080), it ends the process. If not (NO in step S1080), server 130 switches control to step S1090.

[0092] In step S1090, server 130 increments counter N by 1. After that, server 130 returns control to step S1010.

[0093] Through the above-described processing, the server 130 generates a vacant house list as a table 830.

[0094] <Effects of the embodiment> A server 130 according to one embodiment can output information comprehensively indicating whether each house in a specified area (for example, a ward, city, town, or village) is vacant or not, thereby enabling ward, city, town, or village officials to comprehensively grasp the vacant house situation.

[0095] A server 130 according to one embodiment can distinguish between cases where there are multiple houses at the address being determined to be vacant and cases where there are multiple contracts for a single building and determine whether the house is vacant or not, thereby improving the accuracy of vacant house estimation.

[0096] According to an embodiment, the server 130 can determine that a house that is not occupied is a managed vacant house even when the house is under management, and therefore the accuracy of vacant house estimation can be improved.

[0097] The embodiments disclosed herein should be considered to be illustrative and not restrictive in all respects. The scope of the present invention is defined by the claims, not the above description, and is intended to include all modifications within the meaning and scope of the claims. [Industrial Applicability]

[0098] The disclosed technical features can be used in situations where local governments need to check for the presence of vacant houses, and in other aspects of real estate management. [Explanation of symbols]

[0099] 1 CPU, 2 mouse, 3 keyboard, 4 RAM, 5 hard disk, 6 optical disk drive, 7 communications interface, 8 monitor, 9 CD-ROM, 100 system, 110 terminal, 130 server, 190 network, 200 computer system, 400,610,620,630,640,710,720,810,820,830 table,611,612,613,614,621,622,623,624,631,632,633,634,641,642,643,644,711,712,713,714,721,722,723,724,811,812,813,814,821,822,823,824 area.

Claims

1. 1. A computer-implemented method for providing vacant home information, comprising: accessing a database representing the status of lifelines for each house in the municipality; A step of determining whether each house belonging to the municipality is vacant based on a database representing the status of lifelines of each house belonging to the municipality; A method for providing vacant house information, comprising a step of outputting a list of the determination results as to whether each house belonging to the municipality is vacant or not.

2. The lifeline includes electricity, Each house belonging to the said municipality includes a plurality of houses having an electricity contract within the same address, The determining step includes: When a contractor of the vacant house determined to be vacant is the same contractor as the contractor of the vacant house determined to be vacant, the vacant house is classified as a managed vacant house when electricity is being used in the other house at the same address; A method for providing vacant house information as described in claim 1, comprising a step of separating the vacant house determined to be vacant as a vacant house that is presumed to be vacant when the same contractor as the contractor of the vacant house determined to be vacant is present in another house within the same address and electricity is not being used in the other house.

3. The method for providing vacant house information according to claim 2 , wherein the use or non-use of the power is determined based on the amount of use during a predetermined time of day.

4. Each house belonging to said municipality includes an apartment building; The method for providing vacant house information as described in claim 1, wherein the determining step includes a step of determining that the apartment building is vacant if all of the houses included in the apartment building are determined to be vacant.

5. The method for providing vacant house information as described in claim 1, wherein the determining step includes a step of determining that a house for which no lifeline contract exists is vacant if no such contract exists for a predetermined period of time.

6. The method for providing vacant house information as described in claim 1, wherein the determining step includes a step of determining that a house in which a lifeline is not in use is vacant if the lifeline has not been used for a predetermined period of time.

7. The method for providing vacant house information according to claim 1 , wherein the determining step includes a step of determining that a house is vacant if a meter for measuring the usage of a lifeline has been removed from the house.

8. The determining step includes: determining that the house is not vacant if a meter for measuring the amount of use of the utility line has not been removed from the house, a contract for the utility line exists, and the utility line has been consumed for a certain period of time; The method for providing vacant house information as described in claim 1, further comprising a step of estimating that the house is vacant if the meter has been removed, if there is no contract for the lifeline, or if the lifeline has not been consumed for a certain period of time.

9. A program for causing a computer to execute the method according to any one of claims 1 to 8.

10. A memory storing a program for implementing the method according to any one of claims 1 to 8; A vacant house information providing system comprising a processor for executing the program.

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