367 residential burglaries in Leuven in 2025, compared with 234 in 2021: the Leuven curve is rising again. In a city where much of the housing stock is occupied by students, flatmates and tenants who change every year, security runs up first and foremost against legal questions — who installs, who registers, who has the right to film what. These are the mistakes that cost the most.
A series heading back up
The incidents recorded by the federal police in Leuven trace a jagged profile. After 440 residential burglaries in 2019 and 333 in 2020, the municipality reached its low point in 2021 with 234 incidents. Then 2022 shot up to 455 — more than before the pandemic. 2023 fell back to 280, before the series resumed its rise: 334 in 2024, then 367 in 2025, an increase of 9.9% in one year.
It would therefore be misleading to present Leuven as a city where burglary is falling. The 16.6% drop compared with 2019 is real, but it hides the key point: since the low of 2021, incidents have risen in three years out of four, and the last two years are trending upwards. The city recorded an average of 7.1 residential burglaries per week in 2025.
Older reference points — 588 incidents in 2000, a peak of 753 in 2015 — confirm that the current level is nowhere near a record. But residents do not live in a ten-year average: they live in a trend, and the trend over the last three years is upwards. Of the 472 burglaries in buildings recorded in 2025, 78% targeted a home — the university city is no exception to the Belgian rule.
Student rooms, shared houses and keys in circulation
Leuven’s housing stock has one particular feature: a large share of homes change occupants every academic year, and many are rooms in a shared building.
This turnover creates three specific vulnerabilities. The first is the set of keys. A student room or shared house may have seen a dozen occupants in five years; each held a key, and nothing guarantees that none was copied or never returned. A cylinder unchanged for ten years in a high-turnover building is not a lock: it is a formality.
The second is the shared code. In shared housing, a single alarm code often circulates among all the residents, their friends and sometimes the previous occupant. A system whose code has never been changed since installation no longer identifies anyone, which is as much an insurance problem as a security one.
The third is the pattern of vacancy. A student building empties all at once during holidays and over the summer, which an observer spots within a few days: shutters closed on the same date, a full letterbox, nobody coming or going. This synchronisation is not found in a neighbourhood of working households.
The equipment answers are modest. A magnetic contact on the shared front door signals an opening before anyone is in the corridors. A control panel that manages individual codes replaces the single code and logs who arms and disarms the system. Photo-verification detectors avoid unnecessary call-outs when half the occupants have gone home to their parents. And wireless alarm kits are suited to rented housing: nothing to drill in the common areas, and everything comes down when you move out.
Alarm: five obligations, and the most frequent mistake
The framework is federal. It applies in the same way in Leuven, Brussels and Arlon, and it derives from the Royal Decree of 25 April 2007.
- Registration of the system within ten days of installation, via police-on-web.
- Annual confirmation of this registration: it is not valid forever.
- Outdoor siren limited to three minutes per activation.
- Annual maintenance of the system.
- Mandatory verification before any police intervention: an alert on its own does not trigger a patrol.
The most frequent mistake is not ignoring the initial registration, it is forgetting the annual confirmation: a system registered in September and never reconfirmed stops being compliant without anyone warning you. The second, more costly one is believing that an alarm linked to a phone is enough to bring the police. Without verification, nothing happens — hence the value of photo verification. Our guide to registering an alarm system in Belgium sets out the procedure, and the article alarm or camera helps you decide on priorities.
Camera: what becomes illegal in a shared building
For a private CCTV camera, there are four requirements: registration on declarationcamera.be, a regulatory pictogram visible at the entrance, an up-to-date register of processing activities, and a ban on filming the public road or other people’s property.
It is the last rule that causes problems here. A landlord concerned about their building of student rooms will readily install a camera in the corridor. Yet this corridor serves the doors of other occupants: filming them amounts to monitoring people’s comings and goings in their own homes. Likewise, a camera on the façade of a terraced house in the centre almost inevitably covers the pavement and the neighbour’s entrance — which the regulations do not allow. In the narrow streets of central Leuven, this constraint determines the mounting height, the angle, and sometimes the abandonment of a location.
The workable solution: frame strictly what belongs to you, favour an indoor camera facing your own space rather than a camera sweeping a shared space, and document the purpose in the register. Details can be found in our article on Belgian CCTV camera law.
Tenant or landlord: settle the question before installing
In rented housing, two points must be dealt with in writing and before any works. Authorisation first: any work on the door, the cylinder, the façade or the common areas is a matter for the landlord or the co-ownership, not the occupant. Registration next: it is better to have set down in black and white who submits it and who handles the annual confirmation than to find out after an incident. This is the practical reason why wireless dominates here: it does not alter the building, does not involve the co-ownership, and leaves with you.
Free advice from the Leuven local police
The city falls under the Lokale Politie Leuven (5388), which makes a theft prevention adviser — diefstalpreventieadviseur — available to residents. The visit is free of charge, with no commercial interest, and the adviser looks at the home the way an intruder would. The zone presents the procedure on its dedicated page, stressing the best time to call them in: before works, while doors and frames can still be changed.
On financial support, let us stick to the facts: some Belgian municipalities award a home security grant, which funds mechanical protection — locks, cylinders, burglar-resistant glazing, frames — and almost always excludes alarms and cameras. We have not identified any municipal regulations in force in Leuven: check with the city, and do not count on a grant to finance electronics.
Frequently asked questions
Are burglaries increasing in Leuven?
Over the last few years, yes. After a low of 234 incidents in 2021, Leuven recorded 280 residential burglaries in 2023, 334 in 2024 and 367 in 2025, an increase of 9.9% in one year. The level remains 16.6% below that of 2019 (440 incidents), but the recent trend is upwards.
Do I need to register an alarm in a student room or shared house in Leuven?
Yes, as everywhere in Belgium: every alarm system must be registered within ten days via police-on-web, then confirmed every year. In rented housing, it is wise to agree in writing with the landlord who submits the registration and who handles its annual confirmation.
Can a landlord film the corridor of a building of student rooms?
It is strictly regulated. A CCTV camera may not film the public road or other people’s property, must be registered on declarationcamera.be, signposted with a pictogram and entered in a register of processing activities. A corridor serving the doors of private occupants is a sensitive area: it is best to check that the framing is lawful before installing.
What should be done about the keys when a flatmate leaves?
Replacing the cylinder is the only reliable measure, because nothing guarantees that a key has not been copied. In a building with a high turnover of occupants, a cylinder unchanged for several years cancels out the effect of the lock, whatever electronic system is installed elsewhere.
Where can I get free theft prevention advice in Leuven?
From the diefstalpreventieadviseur (theft prevention adviser) of the Lokale Politie Leuven (5388). The visit is free of charge and has no commercial purpose. The best time to request it is before renovation works, when doors, cylinders and frames can still be chosen accordingly.
Sources: Police crime statistics, Federal Police DGR/DRI/BIPOL, publication 2025_T04 (cut-off date 24/04/2026) — Leuven municipal fact sheet. Theft prevention: Lokale Politie Leuven (5388). Municipal support schemes change from one financial year to the next: check with the city before incurring any costs.