Huy recorded 75 residential burglaries in 2025, compared with 151 two years earlier. Halving in twenty-four months is spectacular — and it is precisely the kind of curve that must be read slowly before drawing the slightest conclusion. Here is what the Huy series really says.
Seven years of burglaries in Huy, year by year
The federal police publish recorded offences municipality by municipality. For Huy, the recent series is as follows.
| Year | Residential burglaries in Huy |
|---|---|
| 2019 | 136 |
| 2020 | 77 |
| 2021 | 66 |
| 2022 | 124 |
| 2023 | 151 |
| 2024 | 97 |
| 2025 | 75 |
Two older reference points complete the picture: 170 incidents in 2000, 144 in 2015. The 2025 level is therefore 44.9 % lower than in 2019, and 22.7 % lower than in 2024. In calendar terms, this represents 1.4 residential burglaries per week across Huy.
What the Huy curve really hides
A series of this size cannot be read like a big-city series. In Huy, one burglary more or less weighs 1.3 % of the annual total. Between 2022 and 2023, twenty-seven additional incidents were enough to produce a rise of more than 20 %. Percentages are therefore mechanically more extreme than elsewhere, in both directions, and a headline announcing that burglaries are 'soaring' or 'collapsing' in Huy often describes a movement of a few dozen incidents.
The low point of 2021 proves it. With 66 incidents, it looked like a historic floor. Two years later, the municipality was at 151 — above its 2019 level, and at the highest point of the recent period. This low point was in fact an extension of the special circumstances of 2020, a year in which homes remained permanently occupied and in which burglary, a crime of opportunity that requires an absence, mechanically fell.
Not everything is fragile, though. Three elements hold firm. The decline of 2024 and 2025 runs over two consecutive years; it is not a one-year drop. 75 incidents is clearly below the two older reference points available, 144 in 2015 and 170 in 2000: the baseline of the series has shifted downwards over a quarter of a century. And the structure of the risk does not change: of the 103 burglaries in buildings recorded in Huy in 2025, 73 % targeted a home, the rest shops, business premises and outbuildings.
The honest reading is therefore this: the underlying trend is good, the 2025 position is low, but nothing in Huy's history allows the current level to be considered permanently secured. The series has risen twice after a low point. It can do so again.
Two Huys, two ways in
Huy is a valley municipality, stretched between the Meuse and its heights, and its building stock is divided into two groups that call for different responses.
In the centre, there are terraced town houses, often old, frequently built over a commercial ground floor, with the façade directly on the street and a small courtyard at the back. The weak point there is almost never the front door, which is too exposed to view: it is the back, reachable from an alley, a low party wall or an extension whose flat roof leads to an upstairs window. In old buildings, the original frames and cylinders give way in a few seconds.
On the heights and in the suburban neighbourhoods, the configuration is reversed: detached houses, enclosed gardens, nobody overlooking the back. There, it is the living-room French window and the bay window that concentrate the risk, and the fenced garden that protects the intruder once they are past it.
The consequence is the same in both cases: an alarm with all its detectors indoors signals a presence already inside the home. That is why outdoor detection changes the equation, moving the alert to before the glass is broken rather than after.
No municipal grant identified in Huy: what remains, and what is free
Let us be direct. No municipal security grant has been identified for Huy. Some municipalities in Belgium do offer one, but these grants fund mechanical protection — reinforced locks and cylinders, burglar-resistant glazing, sturdy doors and frames — and they almost systematically exclude alarm systems and cameras. This is the mistake most commercial websites repeat: no municipal grant reimburses an alarm.
What does exist in Huy, and costs nothing: the burglary prevention adviser of the Huy local police (5295). The adviser visits your home, examines your real access points and makes recommendations without having anything to sell — the police zone describes the procedure on its dedicated page. It is the rational starting point for any project, and it remains largely under-used.
What Belgian law requires once the equipment is installed
Two distinct regimes, often confused, and both federal: they apply in Huy exactly as everywhere else in the country.
An alarm must be declared via police-on-web within ten days of installation, then confirmed every year. The outdoor siren may not sound for more than three minutes, maintenance is annual, and alarm verification is mandatory before any police intervention. These rules stem from the Royal Decree of 25 April 2007; our guide on the declaration of an alarm system in Belgium explains the procedure.
A camera must be declared on declarationcamera.be, signposted with the regulatory pictogram and accompanied by a register of processing activities. It may film neither the public road nor the neighbour's property — a restriction which, in the narrow streets of central Huy, concretely determines the mounting height and angle. See our article on the camera law in Belgium.
A set-up proportionate to the risk in Huy
At 1.4 incidents per week across the whole municipality, there is no reason to over-equip a home. The useful approach is to cover the access points actually used, in order.
- A control panel managing the whole system with no compulsory subscription: see the Ajax control panels and our comparison Hub 2 versus Hub 2 Plus.
- Protection of the rear openings — kitchen door, French window, upstairs window reachable from an extension — with magnetic contacts.
- Photo-verification detectors in the passage areas, which turn a notification into actionable information and directly serve alarm verification: see detection with photo verification.
- An outdoor siren, whose deterrent effect remains the main reason a burglar abandons a break-in in progress.
- A camera on the courtyard or back garden if access there is not very visible, while respecting the legal framing rules.
For a house in Huy, equipment typically costs between €700 and €1,800, depending on the number of access points to be covered: a town house with a single rear façade does not have the same needs as a villa with a garden on three sides. The alarm kits cover simple configurations; beyond three or four sensitive openings, a custom set usually works out cheaper than a kit added to piece by piece.
Frequently asked questions
How many burglaries were there in Huy in 2025?
75 residential burglaries were recorded in Huy in 2025, according to the federal police crime statistics. That is 22.7 % fewer than in 2024 (97 incidents) and 44.9 % fewer than in 2019 (136 incidents), an average of 1.4 incidents per week.
Is the fall in burglaries in Huy lasting?
Nothing allows us to say so. The Huy series has already risen again after a low point: 66 incidents in 2021, then 151 in 2023, more than in 2019. In a municipality of this size, a few dozen incidents are enough to reverse a percentage, which means every annual variation must be read with caution.
Is there a municipal security grant in Huy?
No municipal security grant has been identified for Huy. Where such grants exist in Belgium, they fund mechanical protection — locks, cylinders, burglar-resistant glazing, frames — and almost always exclude alarm systems and cameras. For free advice, contact the burglary prevention adviser of the Huy police zone (5295).
Do you need to declare an alarm installed in Huy?
Yes, as everywhere in Belgium. The declaration must be made via police-on-web within ten days of installation and confirmed every year. This obligation stems from the Royal Decree of 25 April 2007: it is federal and does not depend on the municipality.
What share of burglaries in Huy targets homes?
In 2025, Huy recorded 103 burglaries in buildings, 73 % of them in a home. The remainder concerns shops, business premises and outbuildings, which matches the structure of a small town organised around a shopping centre.
Sources: Police crime statistics, Federal Police DGR/DRI/BIPOL, publication 2025_T04 (cut-off date 24/04/2026) — Huy municipal fact sheet. Burglary prevention: Huy local police (5295). Municipal support schemes change from one year to the next: check with your administration before incurring any costs.