1,388 residential burglaries were recorded in Antwerp in 2025, or 26.7 per week. It is the lowest level in the recent series, and the distance covered is worth measuring: in 2000, the city recorded 4,729. One constant remains that the curve does not show: in almost every case, the flat was empty at the time.
A long decline, and a 2025 clearly down
The federal police publish recorded incidents municipality by municipality. For Antwerp, the series for the last seven years falls from 2,415 incidents in 2019 to 1,799 in 2020 and 1,636 in 2021, then rises to 1,946 in 2022, before falling again to 1,705 in 2023, 1,725 in 2024 and 1,388 in 2025. That is −42.5% in six years and −19.5% in the last year alone.
The two years of health restrictions, at 1,799 and then 1,636 incidents, amount to a full-scale experiment whose trace remains in the Antwerp figures: when homes are permanently occupied, the volume collapses; when life resumes, it rises again — to 1,946 as early as 2022. They therefore measure no prevention policy. The decline that matters is the one from 2023 to 2025, slower but observed under ordinary living conditions.
A second figure deserves attention. Antwerp recorded 1,965 burglaries in buildings in 2025, all types combined, of which homes account for 71%. Nearly three incidents in ten therefore target premises that are not a home: a local shop, workshop, office, warehouse. This is a high proportion compared with purely residential municipalities, and it is a reminder that a port and trading city concentrates targets that ‘burglary’ statistics cover without distinguishing them.
In Antwerp, the deciding factor is not the neighbourhood, it is absence
People often ask which street is ‘at risk’. The question is poorly framed. Residential burglary is a crime of opportunity that requires three conditions together: a passable access point, no witnesses and, above all, reasonable certainty that nobody will come home in the next few minutes. This third condition is the one residents can control.
The periods that heighten the risk are known to everyone, yet rarely addressed. School holidays and year-end departures, when entire buildings partly empty. Long weekends. The ordinary working day, for a household with nobody at home. And the Antwerp winter, when night falls before people return from the office: a façade with no light at five in the evening, several days in a row, is noticeable from the street.
Spotting also relies on physical signals, regardless of the time: a full letterbox, shutters closed mid-week, a bin not put out, a parcel left at a door. No electronic system makes up for a building where you can see from the pavement which flat has not been back for eight days.
Antwerp housing: landing door, stairwell, intercom
Antwerp is a dense city, and this density completely shifts the points of entry compared with a municipality of detached houses. Here, the garden patio door does not exist. What does exist is:
- The landing door, which is the real access to force, and often the least protected along the way because it is thought to be safe behind the street door.
- The street door and the intercom, whose remote opening without verification is the structural weak link of buildings with several entrances: an intruder who rings six buttons will eventually find one that opens.
- The common areas — cellars, bike storage rooms, laundry rooms — where one can work out of sight, with no time limit.
- The rear access points and inner courtyards of terraced houses in the centre, invisible from the street.
The direct consequence: in Antwerp, protection designed ‘as for a house’ targets the wrong thing. The first point to equip is not the living-room window, but the opening through which people actually enter, and the corridor that must necessarily be crossed next. A magnetic contact on the landing door and a detector on the unavoidable passage cover most of the real scenario.
Monitoring a home during an absence, in practice
The aim of a monitored absence is not to ‘see’ your flat all the time — nobody does — but to obtain usable information when it matters, and to be able to decide without travelling.
Three building blocks are enough in most Antwerp configurations. First, a control panel able to operate without a compulsory subscription, which sends notifications directly to your phone: see the Ajax control panels. Next, photo-verification detectors, which turn an alert into an established fact: this is what distinguishes ‘something moved’ from ‘here is what moved’, and it is also what meets the legal requirement to verify an alarm before police intervention. Finally, if the home warrants it, an indoor camera pointed at the entrance hall, never at the window.
Budgeting for this remains reasonable: as a rough guide, allow €500 to €1,200 of equipment for an Antwerp flat, depending on the number of access points to cover. Alarm kits meet the simplest configurations.
What Belgian law requires once the equipment is installed
Two distinct federal regimes, identical in Antwerp, Ghent or Brussels — these are never municipal rules.
An alarm must be declared within ten days via police-on-web, with annual confirmation. The outdoor siren is limited to three minutes, maintenance is annual, and verification is mandatory before any police intervention. Legal basis: the Royal Decree of 25 April 2007. Details can be found in our guide on the declaration of an alarm system in Belgium.
A camera must be declared on declarationcamera.be, requires a regulatory pictogram and a record of processing activities, and may film neither the public highway nor other people’s property. In a narrow Antwerp street, where façades face each other a few metres apart, the rule has very practical consequences: it limits the number of legal mounting positions, sometimes to just one. See our article on the camera law in Belgium.
Municipal grant and free advice: what to check
Some Belgian municipalities offer a home security grant, and these grants fund mechanical protection: reinforced locks and cylinders, burglar-resistant glazing, sturdy doors and frames. Alarm systems and cameras are almost always excluded. Enquire directly with your municipality before incurring any costs: the scope and amounts change from one year to the next.
The scheme genuinely available to every Antwerp resident, however, is free: the Politiezone Antwerpen (5345) provides a diefstalpreventieadviseur, a burglary prevention adviser who visits your home, examines the actual access points and gives advice with no commercial interest whatsoever. Starting there avoids buying equipment for a scenario that is not yours.
Frequently asked questions
How many burglaries were recorded in Antwerp in 2025?
1,388 residential burglaries were recorded in Antwerp in 2025, an average of 26.7 per week. This is a fall of 19.5% compared with 2024 (1,725 incidents) and 42.5% compared with 2019 (2,415 incidents), according to police crime statistics.
Have burglaries really fallen in Antwerp?
Yes, and over the long term the fall is considerable: the city recorded 4,729 residential burglaries in 2000 and 3,877 in 2015, compared with 1,388 in 2025. The years 2020 and 2021 were, however, shaped by the health restrictions, and incidents had risen back to 1,946 in 2022 as soon as normal life resumed.
What is the most common point of entry into an Antwerp flat?
The landing door, that is, the door of the flat itself. It is often less protected than the street door because it is thought to be safe, whereas the intercom of a building with several entrances is easy to get round. Cellars and common rooms are the second weak point.
Do you need to declare an alarm in Antwerp?
Yes, as everywhere in Belgium. The declaration must be made within ten days of installation via police-on-web and must be confirmed every year. This obligation stems from the Royal Decree of 25 April 2007: it is federal and does not depend on the municipality.
Where can I get free burglary prevention advice in Antwerp?
From the burglary prevention adviser (diefstalpreventieadviseur) of the Politiezone Antwerpen (5345). The home visit is free of charge, with no commercial interest whatsoever, and the advice covers the home’s actual access points.
Sources: Police crime statistics, Federal Police DGR/DRI/BIPOL, publication 2025_T04 (closing date 24/04/2026) — Antwerp municipal factsheet. The conditions of municipal home security grants change from one year to the next: check with your municipality before incurring any costs.