5 Tips to Secure Your Home During the Holiday Season

Victorian homes had more than 30,500 reported burglaries in the year to June 2025, an increase of almost 14 percent on the year before, according to the Crime Statistics Agency. Neighbourhood Watch Victoria has flagged the same trend, warning that property crime has been climbing month on month. None of that is comforting if you’re about to lock up and head off for a few weeks over summer. The good news is that most break-ins are opportunistic rather than planned, so a handful of practical changes can make your home a lot less appealing to someone walking past. Here are five, based on the WIDEN framework used by neighbourhood watch groups: windows, interior, doors, exterior, and neighbours.

Secure your windows

Windows are the second most common way in after doors, and it’s easy to check the doors are locked and forget about them entirely. A determined burglar can break a pane of glass, but in practice most won’t bother. Breaking glass is loud, and loud is exactly what an opportunistic thief is trying to avoid.

What actually matters is making the easy way in harder. Check every window lock still works, not just the ones you open every day. Sliding windows are especially easy to force if the latch has worn loose, so if yours has been sticking or rattling, get it looked at before you leave rather than after you come home to a mess. If you’re due for an upgrade anyway, look for sturdy aluminum windows with keyed locks rather than basic latches. For an extra layer without replacing the whole window, security screens built to the AS5039 standard are designed specifically to resist forced entry, unlike the standard flyscreen mesh most homes have.

Light up the interior

An empty, dark house is the clearest signal you can send that nobody’s home. You don’t need to leave every light on for two weeks and pay for it in January’s bill. A cheap timer plug from any hardware store will switch a lamp on and off at set times just as well. Some smart plugs let you control this from your phone, useful if your travel plans change and you want the pattern to look less predictable.

Radios and TVs work the same way. A talkback station audible from outside is often enough to make a burglar decide it isn’t worth the risk.

Secure your doors

Front and back doors are still where most break-ins happen. Aluminium doors are harder to force than older timber frames, but a door is only as strong as the lock fitted to it. A single latch isn’t enough. Add a mortice lock or deadlock, and check the frame around the strike plate for any give, since that’s usually where a forced door actually gives way.

If your current doors are original to the house and you’re not sure how old the locks are, it’s worth having them checked before the holidays, not after.

Watch the exterior

The outside of your property tells a burglar a lot before they ever try a door. Overgrown hedges near windows or side gates give someone a place to hide while they work, so trim anything tall enough to provide cover. Put ladders, tools, and anything else that could help force entry away in a locked shed rather than leaning against the fence.

Motion sensor lights are cheap and effective, particularly near side and back entrances that aren’t visible from the street. If you’re weighing up a camera system, something like a Nest or similar doorbell camera covering the front entry is a reasonable middle ground between doing nothing and installing full CCTV.

Talk to your neighbours

This is the step people skip, and it’s usually the most effective one. Neighbours who know you’re away and are keeping half an eye on the place will notice things you won’t, like mail piling up or a light that’s stopped switching on. Neighbourhood Watch Victoria runs this formally in a lot of suburbs, but you don’t need to join a scheme to benefit. A quick message to whoever lives next door, with a phone number in case anything looks off, goes a long way.

Only share your travel plans with people you actually trust. If you’re not sure about your neighbours, a mail hold through Australia Post or asking a friend to collect parcels is a safer bet than letting the house visibly pile up for weeks.

A few common questions

Do I need to tell my insurer I’m going away?

Most policies don’t require notice for short trips, but check the fine print if you’ll be away more than a few weeks. Some insurers add conditions for extended vacancy.

Are aluminium doors and windows actually more secure than timber?

Generally yes. Aluminium frames resist prising and warping better over time, though the lock hardware fitted matters as much as the frame material itself.

What does WIDEN stand for?

Windows, Interior, Doors, Exterior, Neighbours, the five areas neighbourhood watch groups recommend checking before leaving a home unattended.

If this walkthrough turned up a window that doesn’t lock properly or a door that’s overdue for an upgrade, that’s worth sorting before you leave rather than after. Get a quote from Melb Wide Aluminium and we’ll tell you honestly whether it needs replacing or just a better lock.