Two hundred and forty-nine residential burglaries in 2024. Two hundred and forty-nine in 2025. A police series that returns exactly the same figure two years in a row is rare enough to draw a conclusion: in Bruges, the risk is not rising, nor is it falling. It is holding. And it is holding in a built environment where a house cannot be secured as it would be elsewhere, because a protected façade cannot be altered freely.
Seven years of stability, the same figure twice
The federal police publish recorded incidents municipality by municipality. Here is the Bruges series.
| Year | Residential burglaries |
|---|---|
| 2019 | 291 |
| 2020 | 220 |
| 2021 | 189 |
| 2022 | 272 |
| 2023 | 235 |
| 2024 | 249 |
| 2025 | 249 |
The low point of 2021, with 189 incidents, belongs to the pandemic interlude: homes constantly occupied, tourism at a standstill, a city without visitors. From 2022, the counter climbed back to 272. Since then, the series has oscillated within a narrow band — 235, 249, 249 — an average of 4.8 burglaries per week. The gap compared with 2019 is −14.4%, and compared with 2024 exactly 0.0%.
Over the long term, the decline is very real: 463 incidents in 2000, the highest on record, 295 in 2015, 249 today. But it is behind us. What the recent period says is that a floor has been reached with current means, and that it will not be broken without acting on what remains: the entry points themselves.
Another Bruges feature: of the 378 burglaries in buildings recorded in 2025, 249 targeted a home, or 66%. A third of break-ins therefore concern shops, hospitality venues and business premises — the flip side of a commercial and tourist city centre.
Bruges housing: what cannot be drilled, screwed or replaced freely
This is where Bruges stops being a municipality like any other. The historic centre is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and old buildings dominate: narrow terraced houses, brick façades aligned on the street, wooden window frames, old doors with mortise locks, glazed transoms, cellars opening onto the pavement.
This creates a constraint that national guides ignore. In a 1980s villa, the standard answer is to replace the window frames, fit a security door and mount a camera on the façade. In Bruges, each of these three actions runs up against a permit regime or a requirement to preserve appearance: you do not drill into a protected façade as you would a villa wall, and a badly placed outdoor housing stands out immediately on a two-hundred-year-old elevation.
Three practical consequences follow.
Reinforce without replacing. On an old door, most of the gain comes from the cylinder, the faceplate, the strike plate and the frame, not the door leaf. A cylinder resistant to drilling and pulling, a strike plate properly anchored in the masonry and a second lock at the bottom count as maintenance, not as a change of appearance. This is the route that moves fastest in the centre.
Prefer wireless. A wireless system avoids chasing, through-drilling and cable runs in old walls that are often thick and irregular. The wireless detectors are fitted on the existing frame, and an alarm kit can be installed without touching the structure. Where a wired run is still desirable — deep building, very thick walls, long distances — the Fibra range makes it possible to cable neatly where feasible and keep wireless elsewhere.
Relocate visible equipment. An outdoor siren and a camera do not have to sit on the street façade. In a Bruges house, the back yard, the extension, the small courtyard or the side passage almost always offer a discreet mounting point and, incidentally, better coverage of the real entry point.
Where do burglars really get into a Bruges house?
Not through the street door on a busy lane. The weak point of an old terraced house is almost always at the rear: kitchen door opening onto the courtyard, single-glazed ground-floor wooden window frames, cellar window, glass roof or low extension giving access to a flat roof, then to an upper floor.
These old joinery elements share a structural flaw: they were designed to keep out rain and cold, not to resist a crowbar. Their breaking point is the wood around the fittings, and it gives way silently. Fitting opening contacts on these frames costs little and detects the only thing that matters: the sash moving.
Second local reality: vacancy. Second homes, intermittently rented properties, town-centre houses empty for several weeks out of season — the municipality has its share, and a long absence is the main opportunity factor. A camera covering the courtyard and photo-verification detection indoors make it possible to verify an alarm remotely, without every alert depending on a round trip from the other side of the country.
No municipal premium identified: what remains, and what is worth it
We have not identified any Bruges municipal home security premium. We will therefore not present another city's scheme as if it applied here, and if you see a website claiming one, ask it for the regulation.
What does exist, on the other hand, and is free: the diefstalpreventieadviseur, the burglary prevention adviser. The city details the procedure on its diefstalpreventieadvies page, and the Politiezone Brugge carries it out. The adviser comes to your home, examines each access point and provides a written report. They sell nothing.
In older buildings, this visit has extra value: it separates what can be reinforced without a procedure from what requires a permit. That sorting avoids a pointless quote or a refusal after the work is done.
Alarm and camera: the federal rules, in a tight urban setting
These obligations are identical in all three regions and do not depend on the city.
Alarm: declaration within ten days via police-on-web, annual confirmation, annual maintenance, outdoor siren limited to three minutes, and mandatory alarm verification before any police intervention. Basis: the Royal Decree of 25 April 2007. Our guide on the declaration of an alarm system details the procedure.
Camera: declaration on declarationcamera.be, regulatory pictogram, register of processing activities, and a ban on filming the public road or the neighbour's property. In Bruges streets, often narrow and lined with adjoining façades, this constraint is decisive: a camera fixed to a façade will almost certainly frame the pavement, and an inner-courtyard camera quickly takes in the garden next door. The useful adjustment is to lower the device, bring it closer to the access point and mask the rest. See our article on the camera law in Belgium.
Frequently asked questions
How many burglaries took place in Bruges in 2025?
249 residential burglaries were recorded in Bruges in 2025, according to the federal police crime statistics. That is exactly the same number as in 2024, a change of 0.0%, and 14.4% fewer than in 2019 (291 incidents), an average of 4.8 incidents per week.
Is there a municipal premium to secure your home in Bruges?
We have not identified any Bruges municipal home security premium. The free scheme that does exist is the visit of the diefstalpreventieadviseur, the burglary prevention adviser, whose procedure the city describes on its diefstalpreventieadvies page.
Can you install an alarm in a listed house or in a protected area in Bruges?
Yes, but the technical choice matters. A wireless system avoids drilling, chasing and cable runs in old walls, and the detectors are fixed to the existing frames. Visible elements such as the outdoor siren or a camera are better placed on the courtyard or extension side rather than on the street façade, where outward appearance is regulated.
How do burglars most often get into an old house in Bruges?
From the rear rather than the street: kitchen door onto the courtyard, ground-floor wooden window frames, cellar window, or the low roof of an extension giving access to an upper floor. This old joinery gives way at the wood surrounding the fittings, which makes an opening contact particularly useful on these sashes.
Do you have to declare a surveillance camera in Bruges?
Yes. Any private surveillance camera must be declared on declarationcamera.be, signalled by the regulatory pictogram and accompanied by a register of processing activities. It may film neither the public road nor a neighbour's property, which requires tight framing on your own access point in the narrow streets of the centre.
Sources: Police crime statistics, Federal Police DGR/DRI/BIPOL, publication 2025_T04 (closing date 24/04/2026) — Bruges municipal factsheet. Free burglary prevention advice: City of Bruges. Support schemes and planning rules change: check with the city before starting work in a protected area.