Home burglaries in the Brussels-Capital Region have fallen markedly since 2022: the federal police recorded 5,902 home burglaries across the Region in 2024, a steady decline year after year. Nationally, the trend continued in 2025 with 35,438 recorded burglaries, down 7% on 2024 — a figure to be read with caution, since the 2024 Security Monitor estimates that around 66% of attempted break-ins and 30% of burglaries are not reported to the police.
A risk that varies widely by municipality
This regional decline hides large local differences. Some Brussels municipalities show stable or sharply falling levels, while others remain noticeably more exposed, often linked to the proximity of major roads — burglars favour quick escape routes. Before setting a budget, it is better to look at the figure for your own municipality rather than the regional average: we cover some of them in our series Security near you.
Flat, house or shop: not the same system
In a flat
The point of entry is almost always the door, rarely an upper-floor window. A door opening detector, a keypad near the entrance and an indoor siren are often enough. As a tenant cannot drill into walls, a wireless control panel such as Ajax Hub, simply placed or stuck on, avoids any drilling and can be taken with you when you move.
In a house
The risk is spread across the door, the windows accessible from the garden and, often overlooked, the garage or back service door — statistically a frequent point of entry because it is barely visible from the street. A control panel with several motion and opening detectors, supplemented by a deterrent outdoor siren, better suits this profile.
In a shop or store
The shop window and back room require denser coverage, often combined with video surveillance to document incidents, and a connection to a monitoring centre for a response outside opening hours — see our article on alarms connected to a monitoring centre.
The pitfalls of an urban environment
In the city, traffic, trams and people coming and going in a building multiply false alarms if the detectors are poorly chosen or poorly adjusted. Pet-immune detectors prevent triggers caused by a neighbourhood cat or small dog, and a control panel with dual GSM + Internet communication keeps working if the internet router goes down — a frequent occurrence during roadworks.
Don't forget the declaration
Whether in Brussels or elsewhere in Belgium, a connected alarm system must be declared within 10 days of installation via police-on-web, with a siren limited to three minutes and mandatory annual maintenance. Full details are in our article Declaring your alarm system in Belgium.