How does a pool affect your home’s value

It’s the ultimate liquid asset and an instant crowd pleaser — but will this home addition help you sink or swim at sale time?

Should you splash out on a pool? And if you do, will buyers do so down the track?

Aussie homeowners with a backyard pool can expect to make waves — and a healthy profit
— this summer.

Almost two years into the Covid-19 pandemic, demand for a “bit of blue” has soared 55 per cent, according to the nation’s pool builders.

“Pool” and “swimming pool” are also the most searched terms on realestate.com.au by a mile, with buyers around the country seeking them out seven times more often than the next most popular feature: “garage”.

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Advantage Property Consulting boss and buyer’s advocate Frank Valentic said a good water feature could rival water views at the moment, and inflate sale prices.

“Most of my buyers would pay a premium of 10-20 per cent for a house with a pool that’s already fitted out,” Mr Valentic said.

“Because once you start to add up the cost of installing it, plus your gas heating and self-cleaning, tiling, landscaping and fencing, and all the bells and whistles, you’re not going to get much change from $150,000-$200,000.”

The most lavish pools, like this backyard beach at 250 Smiths Lane, Sunday Creek, might set you back a bit more than $150,000. Picture: Alex Coppel

He did note pools had not always been in demand.

“Pools have come in and out of fashion, because some people don’t want the hassle of maintaining it,” Mr Valentic said.

“Previously, some might have seen it as a negative rather than a positive.

“But I’ve not had one person say anything like that since Covid, because there’s been a massive lifestyle shift.”

He did advise against installing one purely to make a profit as it could be “risky and expensive” if you were not doing it for your own enjoyment.

Even in cooler areas, the right pool can still provide year-round enjoyment.

A cost-effective option for those without a pool, but room to add one in, would be to have plans drawn up for one before listing so buyers could see what was possible.

Swimming Pool and Spa Association of Australia chief executive Lindsay McGrath said demand for pool installations had risen about 3-5 per cent a year since the 1970s.

“If pools didn’t see value, we wouldn’t see that sustained growth,” Mr McGrath said.

They have had an about 55 per cent increase in demand across every state and territory since 2019, largely thanks to the pandemic.

Part of the demand for pools has been the desire to have an “everyday-cation”.

With the industry only able to absorb a 37 per cent increase at present, wait times have soared up to 18 months, depending on the type of pool being sought, spas are around the three to six-month mark.

“We saw a three-month downturn at the beginning of Covid, and then it just went ballistic,” Mr McGrath said.

“It’s people wanting that ‘everyday-cation’. And a little piece of blue is the pinnacle of that perfect backyard.”

He said it would make sense if homes that already had a pool sold for a premium at the moment.

More sophisticated and affordable heating technology is helping to make pools more accessible to cooler climates.

And it is not only in affluent postcodes. Mr McGrath said the largest surge in demand had been for plunge pools suited to homes built on 300sq m blocks that were increasingly common in affordable new estates.

He said NSW homeowners had more pools than any other state by numbers, followed by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia.

But Darwin was understood to have the highest number of pools per capita in the world.

Typically, homeowners in the colder states, Tasmania and Victoria, spend the most money installing a pool, usually due to adding more extensive heating and landscaping.

Adding a dining and cooking space to your pool’s set up can help them be seen as a safer space for parents who want to keep an eye on their kids in the water.

While high demand and supply constraints had raised prices for a pool installation by up to $16,000,
Mr McGrath said increases were more muted than the wider housing sector.

Ray White chief economist Nerida Conisbee said last year’s record $11.9bn national spend on renovating, reported by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, would certainly have been influenced by a boom in pool installations.

“They are more popular at the moment because people do have a lot of wealth and interest rates are low,” Ms Conisbee said.

“And also because it’s summer, and they are very desirable when it’s hot outside.”

If pools are rare in your area, they can add much more value — but if they’re common, not having one might be a black mark from buyers.

She said it was likely any delay caused by supply or trades shortages could drive people to buy an established home with a pool, rather than wait for one to be built.

It was also possible that in areas with very high pool ownership, not having a water feature might lead to buyers paying less for a home.

Ms Conisbee said the value added by a pool depended on how well the space around it was landscaped, the quality and type of the pool, and even how safe it was.

“It’s more complicated than pool or no pool,” she said.

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