123 residential burglaries were recorded in Sint-Niklaas in 2025. The lowest figure in the recent series, down 28.5% in a single year. Enough to make you feel safe — except that the prevention advice in circulation is aimed at detached houses, patio windows and gardens. In a block of flats, almost none of this applies.
A rapid decline, but from a high starting point
The federal police publish the figures municipality by municipality. In Sint-Niklaas, the series can be read in three stages. A plateau of around 190 incidents in 2019, followed by a drop to 141 in 2020 — the year of the lockdowns, when homes were occupied and burglary, a crime of opportunity that relies on people being away, found few openings.
Then comes the rebound: 165 in 2021, then 216 in 2022 and 215 in 2023 — two years above pre-pandemic levels. The decline only set in afterwards: 172 in 2024, then 123 in 2025, which is 35.3% lower than in 2019 and 2.4 burglaries per week. Older reference points — 332 incidents in 2000, 348 in 2015, the peak year — place the current level at around one third of the peak. However, 2022 and 2023 serve as a reminder that a rise of fifty incidents in a single year remains possible here: the Sint-Niklaas curve fluctuates.
One final figure matters: of the 142 burglaries in buildings recorded in 2025, 87% involved homes. Sint-Niklaas is not a town where burglars force their way into shops or warehouses. It is a town where they enter people’s homes.
The flat: the blind spot of prevention
The prevailing discourse on burglary describes a house: rear access, a conservatory, French windows, detection in the garden. A household living on the second floor of a block of flats in the centre of Sint-Niklaas has none of these features, and draws the wrong conclusion: that the building protects them.
The building does indeed protect against part of the risk: no patio window accessible from an embankment, no kitchen door hidden from the street. However, co-ownership introduces a vulnerability that a detached house does not have: it pools access. Between the street and your front door, there is no longer one barrier under your control, but two or three barriers controlled by people you do not choose.
The relevant line of thinking in a flat is therefore not ‘how do I prevent someone from entering the building’ — you have no control over that — but ‘what happens once they are in the entrance hall’. From that point onwards, an intruder can work out of sight, with no passers-by, and often with no time limit.
The four real entry points of a block of flats
The intercom and the entrance hall. Remote door opening is the weakest link in a building: all it takes is one resident in a hurry who presses the button without asking who is there, and no equipment can replace this collective discipline. An entrance door that does not close properly, or that is propped open during a move, has the same effect.
The flat’s front door. This is the real boundary of your home, and often the only one. It can be forced through the cylinder, by prying the frame apart, or simply because it has only one locking point. Reinforcing this single point is the most cost-effective investment in a flat, before any electronics.
The cellars. They combine every weakness: an unsupervised shared space, flimsy partitions, a door that stays open, and no one going down there for days. An intruder who reaches the cellars has both time and silence.
The shared car park. The sectional door opens for a vehicle and closes slowly; walking in on foot behind a car requires no skill at all. And many car parks connect to the stairwells, which bypasses the intercom.
What you can decide on your own, and what is a matter for the general meeting
This distinction determines what can be done this year. Anything relating to the common parts — the entrance hall door, lighting, the car park camera, the cylinder of the bicycle storage room — must go through the general meeting. Whatever is inside your own unit is yours.
An occupant can therefore act alone on three levels. Firstly, the mechanical locking of their front door. Secondly, detection at that same point: a magnetic contact signals the opening before a motion detector sees anything in the living room. Finally, a control panel: wireless alarm kits can be installed in a rented flat without any building work and removed when you move out.
Two additions are worth considering. Photo-verification detectors turn a notification into usable information, which matters all the more because a police intervention requires prior verification. And a Wi-Fi camera pointing towards the inside of your home remains your sole responsibility, unlike a camera in the entrance hall, which films neighbours and involves the co-ownership.
The cost of a set comprising a control panel, door contacts and indoor detection is much lower in a flat than in a house, and varies according to the number of access points to be covered: the front door alone, or the front door plus a terrace and cellar. A subscription, for its part, is by no means compulsory: see alarm without a subscription and the comparison alarm or camera.
Free advice from the police, and the question of grants
Sint-Niklaas has a theft prevention service that offers free burglary prevention advice. The adviser (diefstalpreventieadviseur) visits, examines the actual access points and provides a report. The adviser sells nothing: it is the only strictly impartial advice on the market. In a co-ownership, the findings serve as a documented argument at the general meeting, far more effective than a concern raised during the meeting. The request is made through the municipality or the Sint-Niklaas police zone.
On grants, let us be precise, because this is where the inaccuracies tend to accumulate. Some Belgian municipalities award a grant for home security; it funds mechanical protection — reinforced cylinders and locks, burglar-resistant glazing, resistant frames and doors — and almost always excludes alarms and cameras. We have not identified any municipal grant regulations in force in Sint-Niklaas: check with the prevention service before incurring any costs, and do not count on a grant to finance electronics.
Alarm and camera: Belgian rules also apply on the third floor
These obligations are federal. They depend neither on the municipality nor on the type of home.
An alarm must be registered within ten days of installation via police-on-web, then confirmed every year. The outdoor siren may not sound for more than three minutes, annual maintenance is required, and no police intervention takes place without prior verification — Royal Decree of 25 April 2007. See our guide to registering an alarm system. In a flat, the outdoor siren also raises a matter of common sense: fixed to the façade, it is part of the common parts.
A camera must be registered on declarationcamera.be, signposted with the regulatory pictogram, accompanied by a register of processing activities, and may not film public roads or other people’s property. In a block of flats, it is this last rule that causes problems: landings, the entrance hall and the car park are shared spaces, and a private camera covering them films people who have not consented to anything. Our article on Belgian CCTV camera law sets out the procedure to follow.
Frequently asked questions
How many burglaries were there in Sint-Niklaas in 2025?
123 residential burglaries were recorded in Sint-Niklaas in 2025, according to the Federal Police’s crime statistics. That is 28.5% fewer than in 2024 (172 incidents) and 35.3% fewer than in 2019 (190 incidents), an average of 2.4 incidents per week.
Is a flat really less exposed than a house?
It is exposed differently. The building eliminates discreet rear entrances and ground-floor patio windows, but it pools the entrance: the hall, intercom, cellars and shared car park are beyond the occupant’s control. Once an intruder is in the common areas, they can work out of sight, and the flat’s front door is often the only remaining barrier.
Can I install an alarm in a rented flat?
Yes, provided you stay within your private unit. A wireless system can be installed without drilling or cabling in the common parts and can be removed when you move out. However, anything relating to the façade, the entrance hall or the car park — an outdoor siren, a camera in the common areas — falls under the common parts and must go through the general meeting of co-owners.
Is there a municipal grant in Sint-Niklaas for an alarm?
We have not identified any grant regulations in force for this municipality: check with the prevention service. Generally speaking, Belgian municipal home-security grants fund mechanical protection — locks, cylinders, burglar-resistant glazing, frames — and exclude alarm systems and cameras.
How can I get free theft prevention advice in Sint-Niklaas?
By contacting the theft prevention adviser via the town’s inbraakpreventie service or the Sint-Niklaas police zone. The visit is free of charge, has no commercial purpose, and the report provided is useful in a co-ownership to support a request for works at the general meeting.
Sources: Police crime statistics, Federal Police DGR/DRI/BIPOL, publication 2025_T04 (cut-off date 24/04/2026) — Sint-Niklaas municipal fact sheet. Theft prevention: City of Sint-Niklaas. Municipal support schemes change from one financial year to the next: check with the municipality before incurring any costs.