Two figures describe Halle in 2025, and they do not tell the same story. 125 residential burglaries, or -32.4 per cent in one year: a collapse. But the reference year, 2024, was the worst since 2019. A spectacular fall measured from a peak is not worth the same as a decline that has taken hold over time — and when deciding what to do at home, this nuance changes everything.
The Halle series, year by year
Here are the incidents recorded by the federal police for residential burglaries in Halle.
| Year | Residential burglaries |
|---|---|
| 2019 | 198 |
| 2020 | 122 |
| 2021 | 136 |
| 2022 | 134 |
| 2023 | 148 |
| 2024 | 185 |
| 2025 | 125 |
The statistical headline of the year is -36.9 per cent since 2019. The subheading is -32.4 per cent in the last year alone. Both are correct. Neither describes the municipality’s actual trajectory.
What the curve hides: the climb from 2021 to 2024
Look at the right-hand column again and forget the percentages. After the 2020 drop — 122 incidents, a year of COVID restrictions when homes remained occupied at all times — Halle rose steadily: 136, then 134, then 148, then 185 incidents in 2024. In four years, the municipality had thus wiped out most of its decline and come close to its 2019 level.
It is against this recent peak that the -32.4 per cent of 2025 is measured. In other words: the 2025 performance is not the end point of a steady decline; it is a return to the bottom of the range within which Halle has been fluctuating since 2020. The 125 incidents of 2025 are, moreover, barely above the 122 of 2020, the lowest point in the series.
The long-term view confirms that the current level is genuinely low: the municipality recorded 221 incidents in 2015, 160 in 2000, and its peak of 249 in 2017. Halle is therefore indeed in a low phase of its history. But nothing in this series allows us to say that the decline will continue: the only regularity observable since 2020 is alternation. A resident who decided to do nothing because ‘burglaries have fallen by a third’ would be reasoning from a single year, and 2024 has just shown how quickly this kind of figure can turn around.
The pace is better read on a weekly basis: 2.4 residential burglaries per week in 2025 — a low rate in absolute terms, but one that never stops throughout the year. Of the 150 burglaries in buildings recorded in Halle, 83 per cent target a home: here, it is above all homes that are burgled.
Halle’s buildings: terraced houses, small gardens, garages
Halle is neither a dense urban centre nor an estate of detached villas. The dominant fabric combines an old core with streets of terraced houses with small gardens, garages, outbuildings and sheds at the back of the plot. This configuration produces a very particular risk profile.
The front façade is generally the most watched point: it faces the street, neighbours are close, windows face each other. The rear is the opposite. It is reached via an alley, a neighbour’s garden, a low wall at the back of the plot or a shared garage lane. Once in the small garden, the intruder is invisible from the street and has a rear access that is almost always weaker than the front door: kitchen door, utility room window, cellar window, garage door opening directly into the hall.
The garage and the outbuilding deserve particular attention. They hold electric bikes, tools and garden equipment — portable, resaleable goods — and many houses in Halle have an internal connecting door between the garage and the house. This door is often an ordinary interior door with an interior door lock. Forcing the sectional door then means working completely out of sight afterwards.
The technical translation is simple: detect at the rear and on the outbuildings, not just in the living room. Magnetic contacts on the back door, the garage door and the connecting door; outdoor detectors to cover the small garden and the path before the break-in rather than after; an outdoor siren on the street side, since a noise at the rear does not carry to where the witnesses are. An alarm kit covers the core of the home, to be extended access point by access point rather than oversized from the outset — the selection logic is detailed in our guide which Ajax alarm to choose in Belgium.
That leaves the question of a useful signal. A notification with no content, repeated over and over, ends up being switched off. Photo-verification detectors turn the alert into a confirmed observation, which at the same time meets the Belgian requirement for alarm verification before police intervention.
Municipal subsidy: what we can say
We have not identified any municipal subsidy in Halle for home security. Some Belgian municipalities offer this type of support, and one constant is worth knowing before any purchase: these subsidies fund mechanical protection — cylinders, locks, burglar-resistant glazing, window frames — and almost always exclude alarm systems and surveillance cameras. No seller can promise you a partial refund of a control panel or a detector by a municipality. To find out what exists in Halle this year, the only binding source is the municipal administration.
Theft prevention advice from the Zennevallei zone
Halle falls under the Lokale Politie Zennevallei (5905), which has a theft prevention service. The adviser’s visit is free of charge, the adviser has no equipment to sell, and the report covers your house as it actually is.
For a terraced house in Halle, it is the only way to get a reasoned opinion on what really matters: the actual resistance of the back door, the closure of the back of the plot, the quality of the connecting door between garage and house, the condition of the cylinders. How to request a visit is explained on the zone’s cyber and theft prevention page.
Alarm and camera: Belgian obligations
These rules are federal: they apply in Halle as throughout Belgium, and depend neither on the municipality nor on the police zone.
Alarm: registration within ten days via police-on-web, annual confirmation, outdoor siren limited to three minutes, annual maintenance, mandatory alarm verification before police intervention — Royal Decree of 25 April 2007, detailed in our guide on the registration of an alarm system.
Camera: registration on declarationcamera.be, regulatory pictogram, data processing register, ban on filming the public road and other people’s property. In a street of terraced houses, a camera pointed at the small garden easily captures the neighbour’s: the field of view must be adjusted or masked. See our article on the law on CCTV cameras in Belgium, and our national burglary figures to put Halle in context.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many burglaries were recorded in Halle in 2025?
125 residential burglaries were recorded in Halle in 2025, an average of 2.4 per week. This is 32.4 per cent fewer than in 2024 (185 incidents) and 36.9 per cent fewer than in 2019 (198 incidents). Across all buildings, the municipality recorded a total of 150 incidents, 83 per cent of which targeted a home.
Are burglaries falling for good in Halle?
Caution is called for. Between 2020 and 2024, the series rose steadily, from 122 to 185 incidents, before falling back to 125 in 2025. The sharp fall in the last year is therefore measured from a recent peak, not at the end of a steady decline. The current level is low compared with the 221 incidents of 2015 and the peak of 249 reached in 2017, but the series remains unstable.
What is the most exposed entry point in a house in Halle?
The rear and the outbuildings, rather than the street façade. In a fabric of terraced houses with small gardens, the intruder reaches the kitchen door, the utility room window or the garage door without being seen from the street. The connecting door between the garage and the house is a frequent weak point, as it is often just an ordinary interior door.
Is there a municipal subsidy to secure your home in Halle?
We have not identified any municipal subsidy in Halle. Where such subsidies exist in Belgium, they cover mechanical protection — locks, cylinders, burglar-resistant glazing, window frames — and almost always exclude alarms and cameras. Check with the municipal administration before incurring any expenditure.
Who can I contact for free theft prevention advice in Halle?
The theft prevention service of the Lokale Politie Zennevallei (5905), which covers Halle. The home visit is free of charge, has no commercial interest, and results in a written report on the actual entry points of your home.
Sources: Police crime statistics, Federal Police DGR/DRI/BIPOL, publication 2025_T04 (cut-off date 24/04/2026) — Halle municipal fact sheet. No municipal security subsidy had been identified for Halle at the time of writing: check with the municipal administration.