Home invasion recently made headlines after a professional gang was convicted for a spate of high profile celebrity break-ins. But it’s a significant concern for all homeowners regardless of where they sit on the property price ladder.
GetAgent analysed data on both the number of estimated homes across each county of England, as well as the number of residential burglary offences recorded over the space of a year, to see which areas of the market were the safest for homeowners.
In England, there are an estimated 20.5 million homes while 150,000 burglaries were reported in the last 12 months. This means that the ratio of residential burglaries to homes sits at 0.007.
With the lowest ratio score in England, Devon is the market where burglaries are least likely to occur. There are 382,500 homes in the South-Western county and a total of 558 reported break-ins, creating a ratio score of 0.001.
In nearby Cornwall, there are 283,500 homes and just 448 burglaries, creating a ratio score of 0.002. This score is also shared by Rutland and West Sussex making them some of the safest spots to be a homeowner when it comes to the chance of home invasion.
The City of London, Isle of Wight, Dorset, Wiltshire, North Yorkshire, and Norfolk share a ratio score of 0.003, while Staffordshire, Somerset, Cumbria, Suffolk, East Sussex, Northumberland, and Herefordshire all score 0.004.
At the other end of the table. South Yorkshire (0.012), the West Midlands county (0.012), Greater London (0.012), City of Bristol (0.010), West Yorkshire (0.010), and Merseyside (0.009) are home to some of the highest ratio scores.
Colby Short, Founder and CEO of GetAgent.co.uk, commented: “Crime levels have long been an influential factor when it comes to buying a home. Burglary and home invasion statistics are perhaps the most relevant in terms of how safe we may feel in a given area. These statistics can also affect premiums we might get with home or car insurance.
"A good estate agent should have local crime statistics to-hand, but you can also find this hyper-localised data at the click of a button. Utilising this during the initial stages of your house hunt can save you time viewing in areas that aren’t right for you.”
