Empty homes and forced shutters: Torrevieja’s winter security guide, with official crime figures

As the summer crowds leave and thousands of second homes are locked up for the winter, Torrevieja enters the season when many properties sit empty for weeks or months. The locksmith website cerrajero-torrevieja.es, «Cerrajero Torrevieja.es», has put together a practical guide for residents and owners, based on official crime figures and on what its locksmiths see every day in the town’s bungalows, ground-floor flats and urbanisations. The message is positive: burglaries are falling in 2026, and a few simple steps make any home a much harder target.

The figures explain why the subject matters. According to Spanish Interior Ministry data reported by the local press, Torrevieja recorded 10,089 criminal offences in 2025, the highest total in its records, including 568 burglaries of homes. The first data for 2026 point clearly downwards. This report looks at what the numbers say, how burglars usually get in, why empty homes are at greater risk, and what owners can do before they close the door for the season.

What the official figures say

Torrevieja in 2025

The reference for crime in Spain is the Balance de Criminalidad, the quarterly crime report of the Ministry of the Interior. It counts the offences known to the Policía Nacional, the Guardia Civil and the regional and local police. The last full year available for Torrevieja is 2025.

That year the town recorded 10,089 criminal offences, compared with 9,316 in 2024, a rise of 8.3 %. The breakdown by type, published by This is Torrevieja using Interior Ministry data, shows these figures for 2025:

568
burglaries of homes in Torrevieja in 2025, according to the Interior Ministry crime report. That is an average of more than ten a week.

In Spanish statistics, a burglary (robo con fuerza) is a theft committed by forcing something: a door, a lock, a window or, very often on the coast, a roller shutter. Nobody needs to be at home. That is exactly why it is the offence that most worries people who own a ground-floor property or a house that stays empty for part of the year.

2026: good news worth building on

This year’s provisional figures are better. In August, the Spanish Government’s office in Alicante and the Guardia Civil reported that in the first seven months of 2026 home burglaries in Torrevieja fell by more than 11 %, and robberies with violence by more than 20 %, compared with the same period of 2025. The Town Council pointed out that these are provisional figures and do not replace the annual report.

Both readings are true at once. Burglary is going down, yet hundreds of households still suffer one every year. Securing your own home is the part that is in your hands.

The province of Alicante and Spain

Across the province, the 2025 report placed Alicante among the Spanish provinces where crime rose most: total offences grew by 6 %, robberies with violence by 4 % and home burglaries by 3.8 %. In 2026 the trend has turned. From January to June, the province recorded 2,530 home burglaries, compared with 2,960 a year earlier, a fall of 14.5 %, although Alicante is still the fourth Spanish province by number of cases, behind Barcelona, Madrid and Valencia.

Nationally, 2025 closed with 74,353 home burglaries, 8.3 % fewer than in 2024, and the first half of 2026 brought 33,745 cases, against 35,028 in the same period of 2025. Even so, that is more than 180 homes burgled every day in Spain.

How burglars get in

Doors and windows, the usual route

Industry studies agree that almost every burglary starts at an entrance point. The 6th AXA Home Burglary Report (August 2025) found that forcing a door or window accounts for 80 % of home burglaries, that most happen during the day while the home is empty, and that Saturday is the day with the most burglaries (15.4 %). It also notes that a home that has been burgled once is more likely to be targeted again.

Residents sense the same risks. In the report Home security in Spain (Verisure, September 2025), 81.4 % of people surveyed believed their home has at least one weak point, with terraces, patios and accessible windows among those most often mentioned. Those are exactly the features that fill a typical Costa Blanca urbanisation.

The roller shutter, a weak point on the ground floor

Almost every window in Torrevieja has an external roller shutter, and in bungalows, ground-floor flats and townhouses those windows are within arm’s reach. When the shutter is down, it is often the only barrier between the street and the living room. But an ordinary shutter is made to keep out sun and heat, not someone determined to get in.

Local locksmiths see two common ways of attacking it, both aimed at the bottom slat, the only one that can be gripped from outside:

• Levering it up. A tool is pushed under the bottom slat and the shutter is forced up its guides far enough to reach the window or slip inside.
• Bending it out of its guides. The slat is pushed in at the centre until it bends and comes out of place, leaving a gap to work through without hurry.

It happens most where nobody is looking: windows facing a back patio, a side passage between houses, a terrace screened by a hedge or a quiet communal area. The hedge that gives your garden privacy also gives privacy to anyone trying to get in.

Recent cases in the area

Recent news confirms that home burglary is a real issue in Torrevieja, and also that the police are acting on it. In early 2025 the Guardia Civil arrested a man over a series of burglaries in the residential area of Las Torretas who, according to published reports, got into houses by forcing doors and windows, sometimes with the owners inside. In 2026 the Policía Nacional dismantled a travelling group that used a house in Torrevieja as a base and is linked to at least 27 home burglaries between December 2025 and March 2026; investigators said it struck after making sure nobody was at home.

Why empty homes are a target

Torrevieja has a feature that sets it apart from almost any town of its size: a very large share of homes that are nobody’s main residence. According to the INE 2021 Population and Housing Census, as reported by Brainsre, the town had 122,736 dwellings, of which 30,639 were classed as empty, making it the fourth municipality in Spain with the most empty homes. That is close to one in four, compared with a national average of 14.4 %.

30,639
empty homes in Torrevieja according to the INE 2021 Housing Census, out of 122,736. Many of them are holiday homes that are only opened for a few weeks a year.

The INE counts a home as empty when it shows no significant electricity use over the previous year, which includes many seasonal properties. Some belong to Spanish families who come down in summer, others to owners from northern Europe who spend the winter here and go home in spring, and others are holiday lets that stand empty between bookings. They all share one risk: time. In an occupied house someone hears a noise, switches on a light or looks out. In a closed house nobody reacts, so an intruder can come back several nights in a row and try without hurry. If a shutter is forced, nobody may notice for weeks.

Squatters: the facts, calmly

Squatting is a genuine concern on the coast, and it deserves facts rather than alarm. The Interior Ministry groups the offences of entering an occupied home (allanamiento de morada) and occupying a property (usurpación) in a single statistic. Across Spain, those cases fell by 9.4 % in 2025, from 16,426 to 14,875, according to the ministry’s crime statistics portal, as reported by the EFE news agency. The ministry stresses that entering an occupied home, the most serious case, is the least frequent, and that most cases involve empty properties.

We have not found a verifiable 2025 figure for Torrevieja or for the province of Alicante, so we do not give one. The practical lesson is clear anyway: the most exposed home is the one that stands empty, and securing every entrance, windows and shutters included, is the best prevention. The website explains the physical measures for empty properties on its page on protection against squatters.

Before you close the house: a checklist

The Spanish police repeat a set of simple tips every year, and they work. These are the main ones, together with habits the locksmiths of Cerrajero Torrevieja.es recommend on every visit:

1. Make the house look lived in. The Policía Nacional advises not leaving every shutter fully down, because from outside it attracts the attention of people looking for empty homes.
2. Empty the letterbox. The Guardia Civil warns that a pile of post is a sign the house is empty and recommends asking someone to collect it.
3. Do not post your trip on social media until you are back.
4. Check every entrance one by one, not only the front door: windows, terrace doors, patio gates and ground-floor shutters.
5. Check that every shutter runs smoothly and none is stuck, bent or out of its guides.
6. Leave a key with someone you trust nearby, never under a flowerpot or doormat, and ask them to call in now and then and let you know if a shutter looks lifted, bent or out of place.
7. Change the lock cylinder if you have lost count of how many keys are around, especially after buying a property or ending a rental.
8. Report every attempt, even if nothing was taken, and call 112 if you see anything suspicious.
9. Take photos before touching anything if you find a forced shutter or door, and do not try to force it back down.

Shutter security from cerrajero-torrevieja.es

For the weak point that worries ground-floor owners most, cerrajero-torrevieja.es has developed its own new system of shutter reinforcement and anchoring. It grew out of daily work in the local urbanisations, where the same problem appears house after house: a shutter that can be lifted or bent from outside.

Shutter reinforcement and anchoring

We reinforce roller shutters so they cannot be lifted or bent.

Our own system, for ground-floor flats, bungalows, townhouses, urbanisation homes and holiday homes in Torrevieja and the Vega Baja. Just send a photo on WhatsApp and get a fixed quote before any work begins.

Which homes it is for

• Ground-floor flats, bungalows and townhouses, where windows can be reached standing up, without a ladder. More on shutter security for ground-floor homes.
• Holiday homes and houses closed for months, where the shutter has to hold out on its own with nobody watching. More on shutter security for holiday homes.
• Holiday lets that stand empty between bookings.
• Street-level offices and shops that are empty at night and at weekends.

If you live abroad

You do not need to be in Spain to get started. You can message the team on WhatsApp in your own language, and if you are away, a neighbour, your key holder or your rental manager can take the photos for you. The website has a page with more information for foreign residents.

How to ask for it

1. Take a photo of the lowered shutter, seen from outside.
2. Send it on WhatsApp from the website, through the contact page. Messages are answered in any language.
3. If the shutter can be reinforced, you receive a fixed quote before any work begins, with no surprises.

Payment can be made by card, Bizum or cash.

Local locksmiths, born and bred in Torrevieja

Cerrajero Torrevieja.es, «Su cerrajero de confianza» (your trusted locksmith), is a team of Torrevieja locksmiths with 15 years of experience, working 24 hours a day, every day of the year, in Torrevieja and across the Vega Baja. They know the urbanisations, the ground-floor flats in the town centre and the seasonal homes because they work in them every day. Their aim is simple: that every resident, whether they live here all year or for a few weeks, can close the door for the season and sleep easy.

The 2026 figures are encouraging, and the best way to add to that trend is to secure your own home. If you own a bungalow, a ground-floor flat or a house that stays closed for part of the year, message us and send a photo of your lowered shutter. We will tell you whether it can be reinforced and give you a fixed quote before we start. Full details are at cerrajero-torrevieja.es/en/shutter-security.

Sources: COPE, Torrevieja 2025 and January to July 2026 (August 2026); This is Torrevieja, 2025 breakdown with Interior Ministry data (August 2026); El Periòdic (August 2026); El Español, province of Alicante 2025 (February 2026); Selectra, first half of 2026 with Interior Ministry provincial data; Ministry of the Interior, crime report Q4 2025; Brainsre, INE 2021 Housing Census; Valencia Plaza, INE 2021; Noudiari (EFE), allanamiento and usurpación 2025; 6th AXA Home Burglary Report (2025); Verisure, Home security in Spain (2025); COPE, Las Torretas (February 2025); Diario de Alicante, Policía Nacional (2026); Ministry of the Interior, Policía Nacional tips; El Faro de Ceuta, Guardia Civil warning (August 2025).