The Weakest Points of Entry in Most Australian Homes (And How to Fix Them)
Most Australian homeowners believe their home is reasonably secure. They lock the front door, maybe have a deadbolt, and feel that’s enough. But burglars don’t think the way most of us do. They’re not looking for a challenge; they’re looking for the path of least resistance. And in most Australian homes, that path is easier to find than you’d expect.
The numbers are worth pausing on. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics‘ Crime Victimisation Survey 2024–25, an estimated 196,600 Australian households experienced a break-in in that twelve-month period, with a further 217,500 experiencing an attempted break-in. That’s a lot of families coming home to damaged doors, missing valuables, and a sense of violation that takes far longer to recover from than any insurance payout can fix.
What’s telling, though, is how most of those break-ins happen. Research by the Australian Institute of Criminology found that the most common points of entry are an unlocked door (40%), a broken door or window (35%), an unlocked window (28%), and a picked or broken lock (20%). In other words, the majority of burglars aren’t sophisticated; they’re opportunistic. They test what’s in front of them, and if it gives way, they’re in. Curious whether security doors actually make a measurable difference? See what the data says.
So where exactly are the weakest points? And what can you actually do about them?
The Front Door
This might seem obvious, but the front door remains the single most targeted entry point in Australian homes. Not always because the lock is poor, but because the door itself, or the frame around it, isn’t as solid as it looks.
Standard hollow-core doors, which are common in many Australian homes built over the last few decades, can be kicked or forced open with surprisingly little effort. A door is only as strong as its weakest component, and that’s usually the door frame rather than the lock. A deadbolt set into a soft timber frame with short screws will come away cleanly under a single hard kick.
The fix: Replace hollow-core doors with solid-core or steel-core alternatives. Upgrade to a properly installed deadbolt with reinforced strike plates and 75mm screws that reach the structural frame behind the trim. Better still, install a security screen door in front of your main door. A properly rated security screen, one that meets the Australian Standard AS 5039, creates a visible, physical barrier that most opportunistic burglars won’t bother with.
Ground-Floor Windows
Windows account for roughly 30% of all residential break-ins in Australia. Louvred windows, still common in older Queensland and NSW homes, are particularly easy to defeat. The glass slats can simply be lifted out of their fittings without breaking anything. Sliding windows without secondary locks are almost as easy: a firm push or a screwdriver in the track is often all it takes.
Research from the Australian Institute of Criminology confirms that visible window grilles and screens are among the deterrents most commonly cited by convicted burglars as factors that made them think twice about targeting a property.
The fix: Replace hollow-core doors with solid-core or steel-core alternatives. Upgrade to a properly installed deadbolt with reinforced strike plates and 75mm screws that reach the structural frame behind the trim. Better still, install a security screen door in front of your main door. A properly rated security screen, one that meets the Australian Standard AS 5039, creates a visible, physical barrier that most opportunistic burglars won’t bother with.
Sliding Glass Doors
The back of a home is quieter. There are fewer eyes. And sliding glass doors are among the most commonly bypassed entry points in Australian homes, not because the glass shatters easily, but because the locking mechanisms on many standard sliding doors are genuinely poor.
The typical latch that comes built into a sliding door is not a lock in any meaningful sense. It can often be forced by simply lifting the door off its track, or by flexing the frame. Many Australians don’t know this until it’s too late.
The fix: For louvred windows, consider replacing them entirely with fixed or awning-style windows with proper locking mechanisms. For sliding windows, fit a secondary pin lock or a track block. Security screens, particularly hinged or fixed aluminium mesh screens rated to AS 5039, are one of the most cost-effective upgrades you can make, because they let air and light through while keeping people out. A burglar who can’t see a quick way past a screen will usually move on. For a closer look at which screen style suits which window, see our room-by-room security screen guide.
The Garage
An unlocked garage is effectively an unlocked house. Many Australians treat the garage as separate from the home, leaving tools, bikes, and cars in there without much thought for the internal door, the one that connects the garage to the living area. That internal door is often the most poorly secured door in the entire property.
Research indicates that burglars use secondary access points like garages in a meaningful proportion of cases precisely because, once inside, they can work unobserved, and the internal door from the garage to the house is rarely reinforced in the same way as the front door.
The fix: Add a track lock or a security bar (a cut-down piece of timber or a purpose-built aluminium rod) in the base of the sliding door track. This prevents the door from being slid open even if the latch is defeated. For a more complete solution, a sliding Baulkham Hills security screen door rated to AS 5039 will reinforce the entry point significantly and add a secondary layer that has to be defeated before anyone can reach the glass door at all.
Side and Back Gates
The path of least resistance into a property often starts before the house itself. An unsecured side gate gives a burglar access to the back of the property, the area with the least foot traffic, the least visibility from the street, and often the easiest windows and doors.
The fix: Fit side gates with a padlock or a self-locking latch that can’t be reached over the fence. Keep hedges and shrubs near entry points trimmed, not for aesthetics, but because concealment is an asset to a burglar and a liability to you. Motion-sensor lights on the side and back of the property remove the cover of darkness that many break-ins rely on. Getting the gate height right matters too, for balancing privacy and security.
The Bigger Picture
The goal isn’t to turn your home into a fortress. It’s to make it look and feel harder to enter than the next house along. Research by the Australian Institute of Criminology found that most residential burglars, particularly opportunistic ones, decide to commit a crime before they’ve even identified a specific target. They go looking for a suitable property. What they’re looking for is a home with no visible deterrents, easy access, and somewhere to work unobserved.
Security screens and doors address two of those three factors directly. They’re visible, which signals to anyone looking that this home will take time and effort, and they eliminate easy access at the points where most break-ins actually happen.
A good security screen costs less than a single insurance excess. And unlike an alarm that sounds after someone is already inside, a security door or window screen stops entry before it happens.
If you’re considering upgrades, start by walking around your own property the way a burglar would. Test every door, check every window latch, look at what’s visible from the street and what’s hidden from it. The weak points in most Australian homes are not hard to find, which is exactly why they need to be fixed.