The way we think about owning or renting a home has changed dramatically in the past decade or so – especially for people living in London. Soaring house prices and the reliance on the city for work has meant that, for many professionals, sharing a house is the only feasible option. Similarly, for many homeowners, renting out a room is a necessary sacrifice if they are going to be able to pay off their mortgage.
In fact, according to research by PwC UK, just 40 per cent of Londoners will own their own home in 2025, down from 60 per cent in 2000. This isn’t just down to what PwC calls ‘generation rent’ (i.e. millennials) – the number of people aged between 45 and 54 who share a house or flat has also risen 300 per cent in the past six years. But this change has had a big impact on how we think about home security, and the types of solutions we need.
A new approach to home security
With properties now frequented by ever-changing groups of individuals, rather than long-term residents, traditional security systems are not always suitable for landlords and homeowners. On top of this, the breaking up of properties into separate flats and rooms means that each individual home needs its own security solutions – as well as additional internal features to ensure each let room within the house is secure in its own right.
Communal entry systems
One security element that has been compromised by house shares is the traditional door lock and key. If a house is shared by, say, seven professionals, that’s seven people that share the same key – and seven people that could potentially lose it, or forget to lock the door. Though each room door should also have its own lock, the security of the main door is certainly put at greater risk by having multiple occupants using keys to get in and out.
Access control is a far safer option for house shares, as it means the door can simply be disabled or reprogrammed if a fob is lost or a PIN code forgotten.
Safes and locked cupboards
When living with strangers, there are extra precautionary measures that need to be taken to ensure an occupant’s valuables are completely secure. It is now fairly common for kitchen cupboards to be fitted with locks so that tenants cannot access each other’s things, for example, and many rooms are also equipped with safes so that an occupant’s valuables can be stored away. As the number of house shares in the UK continues to increase, home security systems will have to adapt accordingly.
To find out more about the changing nature of home security, or find out how you could make your home safer in Surbiton, Worcester Park, Woking, Tadworth or Caterham, contact us at Angel Security today.
