One-in-five Victorians don't feel safe where they live, while a third feel less secure than they did 12 months ago, according to RACV's Home Safety Pulse report.
The survey, which tracks Victorians' feelings about safety in their home and community, what influences those feelings and what can be done to help people feel safer, heard from more than 5000 respondents across the state.
The report comes as Victoria's latest crime statistics showed criminal offences rose 4.2 per cent during 2025.
Most Victorians still report feeling safe at home, but the sentiment was not shared equally across the community, according to the survey, which attributed a growing sense of unease to concerns about crime and what people are seeing and hearing in their neighbourhoods.
Across the state, 17 per cent of surveyed residents said they felt somewhat or completely unsafe at home.Â
This was more pronounced in Melbourne's western metro area at 22 per cent, followed by the northeast metro and southeast metro areas both at 19 per cent.
Feeling safe at home was fundamental to wellbeing and quality of life, RACV corporate affairs general manager Liz Carey said.
"For many Victorians, that sense of safety is being eroded," she said.
Among those who felt more unsafe in their home than 12 months ago, 94 per cent blamed rising crime, a third said it was linked to a neighbour experiencing a crime, and 14 per cent said it was due to their own personal experience of crime.
"Even when people haven't been directly affected, concerns about crime in their community can still have a powerful impact on how safe they feel at home," Ms Carey said.
Apartment dwellers were more likely to report feeling safe, compared to those living in townhouses and houses.
One fifth of Victorians were not confident their vehicles were secure when parked at home as 32,000 cars were stolen in 2025, the highest level in a calendar year since 2001.
Almost half of survey respondents wanted the state to fund local councils to improve neighbourhood safety, invest in home-safety education and awareness campaigns, and offer households financial support to install home-security features.
Victoria's aggravated home burglaries fell in 2025 for the first time since 2020, down 4.1 per cent, but remained at the second-highest level recorded.
The survey comes as homicide detectives investigate the shooting death of a man at an apartment building at Box Hill in Melbourne's east.
Police are treating the shooting in the early hours of Thursday morning as a targeted attack.
22°C