How to lower the chances of your house being burgled

A home should be a place where you feel the safest, but sadly many South Africans don't feel safe in their own houses because of the high crime rate.

The 2015/16 crime report shows that more than 50% of all crimes experienced by households in South Africa were burglaries, with home robberies being the second most common type of crime overall. This is an alarming number.

Although we can't really guarantee that your home will never be broken into, we can guarantee that taking the precautions below will make criminals think twice before breaking into your home.

- Change all the locks when you move into a new house.

- Don't leave the spare key where it could easily be found.

- If you lose your key, consider changing all locks.

- Walk around your own house and yard to identify any weak spots.

- Have an electric fence installed around your house.

- Install security doors.

- Install CCTV cameras and always make sure that they are functioning.

- Trim your trees. You don't want to make it easy for criminals to hide in the trees.

- Have detection beams or motion-sensitive lights around your home.

- Put timers on lights for when you are away on vacation.

- Make sure that all doors, including your garage door, are locked at all times.

- Check that all windows are closed before you go to bed.

- Ensure that your alarm is always activated.

- Ctrack reports that the majority of residential robberies are committed with the help of information from maids, gardeners, and former employees, so ensure that you do thorough background research before hiring a nanny or gardener.

Also read: Seven mistakes first-time home buyers make – expert advice