95 residential burglaries in Knokke-Heist in 2025 — exactly the same number as in 2024. In a municipality where a significant proportion of the housing stock remains vacant for several months each year, this stability is worth examining closely: it follows a peak of 149 incidents in 2022, and has remained unchanged for the past two years.
A series that fluctuates rather than declines
The federal police publish the recorded incidents by municipality. In Knokke-Heist, the series does not show a steady decline: it goes up and down. 126 incidents in 2019. 89 in 2020. 66 in 2021, the lowest point in the entire series. Then 149 in 2022 — more than before the pandemic. This was followed by 98 in 2023, 95 in 2024, and 95 again in 2025. Over six years, the decline amounts to 24.6 per cent. Year-on-year, the change is nil, to within a fraction of a per cent. The municipality records an average of 1.8 residential burglaries per week.
Deterrence alone does not explain the two low years. In a seaside town, the COVID restrictions of 2020 and 2021 had a particular effect: properties that are usually empty out of season were occupied for many months. As residential burglary is an opportunistic crime that relies on the occupants being away, the figure fell to 66. The rebound in 2022, to 149, tells the same story in reverse: as soon as seasonal patterns resumed, the risk returned – and was higher than in 2019.
Since then, the curve has levelled off at around 95. This is lower than the municipality’s historical benchmarks — 139 incidents in 2000, 118 in 2015 — but it is a plateau: two identical years, with no improvement. Of the 110 burglaries in buildings recorded in Knokke-Heist in 2025, 86 per cent involved a home. Despite the seafront promenade, the shops and the hotels, it is homes that are being burgled here.
The real local factor: unoccupied homes
Knokke-Heist has a distinctive feature that few other Belgian municipalities share to such an extent: a significant proportion of its flats and villas are not occupied on a continuous basis. In a typical municipality, an absence lasts a working day or a fortnight’s holiday. Here, it can last six months, and three consequences add up.
It takes a long time to discover a break-in. A break-in at a locked villa in February may not be discovered until the first weekend of spring: cold leads, the date of the incident unknown, a complicated insurance claim. Signs of vacancy are visible from the street — shutters permanently closed, full letterbox, no vehicles, unkempt garden. And no one can verify the alarm: no permanent neighbour, no family nearby. This is the most significant factor, and it is this that must determine the technical choice.
The buildings make the situation worse in the case of villas: the terrace, the living room bay window, and the kitchen door leading onto a fenced garden with no neighbours opposite — a fence protects the intruder just as much as the occupant once they have got through. As for flats, the weak point remains the front door of the flat and, in blocks with multiple entrances, the cellar door or the garage entrance.
Knowing what is going on when you are a hundred kilometres away
For a property that is permanently occupied, an alarm that sounds is enough: someone will eventually check. For a property that stands empty six months of the year, a siren with no witness achieves nothing. You need to be able to see for yourself remotely, not just be notified.
That is why photo verification is less a matter of convenience than a necessity here. A detector that sends images at the moment of detection turns an anonymous notification into actionable information: a cat, a curtain moved by the ventilation, or a figure. This distinction determines what happens next, and it ties in with the legal requirement for alarm verification, which is mandatory in Belgium before any police response to an alarm.
A connected camera plays the same role around the property. In a villa with a deep garden, it makes sense to point it at the terrace and the rear bay window – in other words, the entrance that is actually used. In a flat, it serves little purpose: it is the magnetic contacts on the front door and the balcony doors that do most of the work.
Two points that are often overlooked here. Firstly, autonomy: a system with no compulsory subscription, running on a backup battery, continues to operate during a winter power cut. Secondly, damage without a break-in: a burst pipe in a flat that is closed from November to March causes more damage than a burglary, and flood detectors are fully justified in a second home.
Free advice from the police zone, and the question of subsidies
Knokke-Heist falls under the Damme / Knokke-Heist police zone (5446). Like all police zones in the country, it provides a theft prevention adviser — diefstalpreventieadviseur — whose visit is free of charge and has no commercial interest. For an owner who does not live in the municipality all year round, this is the simplest way to obtain an assessment without having to rely on a quote. The municipality refers people to this service via its page on burglaries and pickpocketing.
A clarification is needed regarding subsidies. Some Belgian municipalities award a subsidy for the mechanical security of homes: reinforced locks and cylinders, burglar-resistant glazing, resistant window frames. They fund what delays an intrusion and almost always exclude alarms and cameras. Check with your local council, and do not draw up a budget on the assumption that a subsidy will pay for an alarm.
What Belgian law requires once the installation is complete
Two separate federal obligations, identical across all three regions — there is nothing specific to the coast. For an alarm: registration via police-on-web within ten days of commissioning, annual confirmation, outdoor siren limited to three minutes, annual maintenance, mandatory alarm verification before any police intervention. These rules stem from the Royal Decree of 25 April 2007; see our guide on the registration of an alarm system in Belgium. For a non-resident owner, the annual confirmation is the point most easily forgotten.
For a camera: registration on declarationcamera.be, regulatory pictogram, data processing register, and the ban on filming public roads or neighbours’ property. On the seafront and in the narrow streets of the town centre, this restriction effectively determines the mounting height and angle. See our article on the law on CCTV cameras in Belgium.
A set-up that holds up in an empty home
For a property that is unoccupied for much of the year, the logic is not to pile up detectors but to ensure three things: that the system stays alive without you, that it tells you what it sees, and that someone can go and check. The size of the system then depends on the number of access points — see which Ajax alarm to choose in Belgium.
- A control panel that is stand-alone, with a backup battery and dual communication channels.
- Photo-verification detectors in the through rooms and on the rear access — the key function here.
- An outdoor siren: even without any witnesses, noise remains the main factor causing an intruder to abandon a break-in in progress.
- A list of local contacts who can actually be reached: permanent neighbour, building manager, property manager. A system that alerts someone 300 kilometres away and no one 300 metres away is incomplete.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many burglaries were recorded in Knokke-Heist in 2025?
According to the Federal Police’s crime statistics, 95 residential burglaries were recorded in Knokke-Heist in 2025. This is the same number as in 2024, and a 24.6 per cent decrease compared with 2019 (126 incidents), averaging 1.8 incidents per week.
Why was 2022 such a busy year in Knokke-Heist?
With 149 incidents, 2022 is the highest figure in the recent series, ahead of the 126 incidents recorded in 2019. This peak follows the low years of 2020 and 2021, when properties that are usually empty were occupied for extended periods.
How can I monitor an unoccupied second home in Knokke-Heist?
The priority is to be able to check remotely what has triggered an alert, not just to be notified: photo-verification detectors and a correctly framed camera make it possible to distinguish a false alarm from an intrusion. You should also plan for a backup battery, a local contact who can be reached, and flood detectors for long closures.
Is there a municipal subsidy to secure a home in Knokke-Heist?
Some Belgian municipalities offer a subsidy for mechanical home security — locks, lock cylinders, burglar-resistant glazing, window frames. These schemes almost always exclude alarms and cameras. Check with your local authority: conditions and amounts vary from one municipality to another and from one year to the next.
Which police zone should I contact for theft prevention advice in Knokke-Heist?
The Damme / Knokke-Heist police zone (5446), which has a theft prevention adviser. The home visit is free of charge, the adviser has no products to sell, and the advice focuses on the actual access points of your home.
Sources: Police crime statistics, Federal Police DGR/DRI/BIPOL, publication 2025_T04 (cut-off date 24/04/2026) — Knokke-Heist municipal fact sheet. Prevention and local advice: municipality of Knokke-Heist. Municipal schemes to help with home security change from one financial year to the next: check with your municipality before incurring any costs.