Gated community...can it effectively guard off burglar?

Nowadays, a lot of property developers are offering gated community for landed properties. By forming a gated community, the housing area will be gated by brick walls with certain height and also at the entrance of the housing area, there will be a guard house for monitoring & checking of visitors in and out of the place.

Normally, there will be two or more security guards working by shift to watch over the entire housing area. It's interesting to note that some of these housing area will not have individual gate for the house because it's assumed to be safe enough with the guard monitoring at the main entrance.

Of course this type of service will not come for free. Inmates of this community need to pay a certain amount of maintenance fee every month which typically amounting to RM100++. Now you see that not only those staying in apartments and condominiums need to pay for monthly maintenance but also those staying in landed properties!

Well, this might continue to be a trend and for the potential house buyer, they may have no choice given the current situation but to choose a property that will at least give some peace of mind once they move in - no need to worry about their house being broken into and lose all their valuable belongings.

To answer the question on how effective the gated community can guard off burglar, we need to ask a few more questions as below:

(1) How well trained the security guard in ensuring the safety of the inmates and their home?
(2) Is there any way the inmate can alert the security guard in case or emergency?
(3) How is the checking of visitors in and out of the community is being performed?
(4) How many time the guard patrols around the housing area per day?
(5) Is there a way the burglar can get into the community through the brick wall?
(6) etc...

I asked these questions because I can see the vunerability of the homes in the community if any of these factors are not being considered properly. I had heard a case from my friend that his uncle's car actually got stolen even he stayed inside a gated community! After the incident, he refused to pay the monthly maintenance fee.

I am not saying that the gated community is useless in protecting the home of the inmates but I think much improvement needed in some of these projects so that the inmates can benefit fully from the service. I wish all of you have a home sweet home in year 2010.