Crime rate / common crimes in Inala.

We saw only a few homes fitted with the grills you describe, and those grills look very old. All the renovated houses in Inala have normal windows, which means the crime rates are now down to ordinary level.

General crime affecting an average household is exactly the same as in most other Brisbane suburbs. As suggested above, all police crime reports have to be adjusted to the population numbers. Inala looks worse in crime statistics only because it is one of the largest suburbs around, while all crime reports are given in total numbers, not per capita.

I know people living in Taringa, Ashgrove and Yeronga who had multiple break-ins in the past 5-10 years. And I know people who have lived in Inala for 50+ years and never had any problems. All this makes me think that getting into a million dollar mortgage slavery for the rest of one's life just to buy into one of the "high class" suburbs is not worth it.

In the past, about 20-30 years ago, Inala had a reputation of having somewhat higher crime rates than some expensive suburbs. Most metal grills you see today were installed then.

These days some insurance companies charge lower premiums if a house has security fittings (that's for any suburb, not just Inala), so some people keep them in place for the discount. The difference is that in many other suburbs houses are so flimsy, made of pine frames, plaster board and brick veneer, that any grill is basically pointless - burglars can rip it out together with the wall. Inala houses, on the other hand, are so solid that simply installing a good window grill and a decent door makes them impenetrable.

As to the current crime statistics, many much more "expensive" suburbs have higher theft and burglary rates than Inala. For example Sunnybank: house prices are twice as high, and a chance of being broken in is twice as high, per-property.

Police website can be a reasonable source of crime statistics, but to get precise numbers you must adjust the crime reports per-capita of the suburb population. For example if you compare total Inala crime numbers with super-expensive Chelmer, and see for example that the numbers in Inala are 5 times higher, then look at the population of the suburbs (approx 3000 and 15000 respectively) and you will see that Inala is 5 times larger by population as well.

We have hived in Inala for many years, and haven't felt any more unsafe here than in Toowong or Indooroopilly. Most unpleasantness in Inala seems to concentrate around Inala Plaza and Inala Civic, just as in any other suburb a large shopping centre is a bit of a "hot spot". Otherwise, just use your common sense and normal level of home security approach applicable to any suburb (close windows, lock doors, have good lights around the house, make friends with your neighbours and look after each other's homes, don't grow dense vegetation right next to house walls and windows, don't clutter your yard, etc), and you should be fine. All the best!