When choosing an apartment to rent, many people place importance on whether or not the property has adequate security measures.
As a landlord, you want to meet these expectations, but some crime prevention measures can be expensive depending on the content of the work. In this article, we will provide a thorough explanation of crime prevention measures for apartments, including the average cost.

Various apartment crime cases

Recently, crimes have become more diverse, with intrusions using sophisticated methods and simple mischief as the objective. Before taking any crime prevention measures, let's think about what types of crimes an apartment building needs to be protected from.

Intrusion and theft

When we think of breaking and entering, we tend to imagine crimes such as breaking glass to open a lock or climbing over a fence and entering through a balcony, but the most common method is to brazenly enter through an unlocked front door.
Perhaps having an automatic lock gives people a sense of security, and they tend to be less conscious of locking their front doors.

Also, apartment buildings with high fences and hedges may seem safe, but this can have the opposite effect because once an intruder has entered, they cannot be seen from the outside.

Victim of mischief

There have also been many cases of pranks with unknown purposes, such as foreign objects being placed in mailboxes, bicycles being broken, and cars being scratched.
While some incidents are caused by intruders from outside, there are also cases where it is suspected that the work may be done by apartment residents themselves.
Unless the act is clearly a crime, the police often do not take action, and you may have no choice but to put up with it.

Sexual crime victim

It all starts with stalking, followed by breaking in with a resident when the auto-locked shared entrance to the home is open, and there have been confirmed cases of perpetrators climbing over fences and breaking in through unlocked windows or balconies.
It is said that people who leave their doors unlocked after returning home are likely to be targets, perhaps due to their trust in auto-locks.

Crime prevention measures start here

The cost of crime prevention measures should be considered a necessary expense, but it is important to start with measures that can be done immediately with a small budget. If the property appears to be poorly managed, people will tend to think that crime prevention measures are also weak.
It's important to take proper precautions before criminals notice your apartment building as an apartment that doesn't pay attention to security.

Check to see if it is marked

"Marking" refers to leaving marks on the entrance or mailbox of a home that indicate the resident's characteristics or the times when the home will be away.
At first glance, they may appear to be construction signs, such as those containing only alphabets or katakana characters, but if you look closely with a security perspective, you may notice some unnatural markings.
If you find any markings, remove them as soon as possible.

Some of them are even used as communication tools between multiple criminals, so it is best not to leave them unattended.
Recently, there have been cases where the marks are not only in easily visible places, but also in less visible places such as inside the meter box or on pipes.

Brighter lighting in common areas

Common areas are often visible from the outside, and if the lights are out or dimly lit, they become targets for criminals. Being hard to see from the outside means it is easier for criminals to break in without being noticed by others.
If you don't have much lighting to begin with, it might be worth considering adding more lighting to dark areas.

Clean up mailboxes and trash areas

It's common to see advertisements spilling out of mailboxes or scattered in common areas.
This does not necessarily mean that crime will occur immediately, but it is likely that criminals will perceive the property as being poorly managed and security is weak. The same goes for apartment buildings with messy garbage areas.

In such poorly managed apartment buildings, it is easy to assume that the residents are not concerned about crime prevention. Be sure to keep the common areas such as the entrance, garbage area, and bicycle parking area tidy and clean at all times.

Next time: "Strengthening security measures for apartment buildings"
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