With so many abandoned claims or massive ones I wanted to come up with a reasonable solution without over favoring village vs. private. I came up with three ideas.
First private claims should be subject to inheritance limits. If your full change you lose 75% just like stats. Full tradition loses 25%. This would weaken the big LP banks some players maintain to try and subvert death penalty.
The second idea is to allow private claims to remain free of upkeep as long as they are occupied. If you don't log in after a certain time they begin to decay just as a village claim with no authority. Much like a idol decaying a claim stake would as well, eventually freeing up the land again.
My last suggestion is raise their cost. Private land ownership should not be so easy. People create multiple claims to easily contributing to the problems.