Does a swimming pool add value to your home in Melbourne?

Home buyers dreaming of a property with a pool may need to fork out as much as an extra six figures amid a rush for resort-style living.

Sky-high building costs, and the demand for a sanctuary from COVID-19, has meant some homes can sell for upwards of $100,000 more than their neighbours without a spot to swim.

Homes with pools, like this one in North Warrandyte, have become popular with buyers.Credit: Scott McNaughton

Swimming pool was the most searched term for the third year in a row in 2022 on property listing website Domain.com.au, and pools have been popular despite Melbourne’s cold winters after lockdowns forced a reassessment of living space.

Senior sales executive with Hoskins Maroondah, David Alvares, said a home with a pool can add as much value as it costs to build - often about $100,000, but sometimes as much as $300,000 at the luxury end. But the extra value depends on the type of property, and the type of pool on offer.

“We’re tending to find any property that has good continuity from their indoor area to their outdoor area can add hundreds of thousands more to the price,” Alvares said.

Alvares has listed a property in North Warrandyte that has an outdoor entertaining area with a pool and has so far been popular with buyers.

The four-bedroom home, at 23 Kruses Road, has a price guide of $2.85 million to $3.1 million.

That compares to another four-bedroom home in Flannery Court Warrandyte, with almost as large a block size but no swimming pool, listed for between $2.75 million and $2.95 million.

Dave Tucker, who owns the North Warrandyte home, said he and wife Nickey had rebuilt it with a pool about 11 years ago.

“We’d been to Bali and Asia many times, so we wanted our home to have a similar feel,” Tucker said.

Dave Tucker with dog Murphy at his home in North Warrandyte.Credit: Scott McNaughton

The pool, he said, had been the heart of their home, a place to gather with their two children, now young adults, to catch up and cool off on hot days.

“It’s really been a place the kids and their friends can all congregate around - it’s really a good family gathering magnet,” he said.

The Tuckers are now downsizing to the Mornington Peninsula where homes with pools are popular, even by the beach.

A modern four-bedroom home in Olive Street, Blairgowrie, with a pool terrace, sold for $2.825 million in August last year.

An older four-bedroom home on a similar sized block but without a pool in Court Street, Blairgowrie sold for $2.05 million two months later.

Fletchers Mornington Peninsula’s Josh Callaghan believed the Court Street home could have asked $2.35 million to $2.4 million if it had a pool.

“Sixty per cent of people that went through the home were working out where they would put a pool - would they drop it in the backyard, or build up the land and have it in line with the decking?” he said.

Home buyers are seeking a house with a swimming pool, even if it is close to the beach in the Mornington Peninsula.Credit: iStock

It was a similar story in the Bayside area, where around half the buyers interested in some properties want a spot to swim at home, although others can be dissuaded by the upkeep requirements.

“I always say it’s actually 50/50 - 50 per cent want it and 50 per cent don’t,” Hodges Sandringham director Stephen Wigley said. “Some buyers don’t want to deal with the maintenance and the safety aspect of a pool.”

Maintenance including pool chemicals and cleaning services, can cost $100 per fortnight in the Bayside area, Wigley said.

But houses with pools can still garner higher prices than those without.

A four-bedroom home with a pool at 43 Grange Road, Sandringham sold for $2.537 million in September, while a similar home on a similar size block, with no pool, at 29 Grange Road sold for $2.4 million in November, sales records show.

Frank Hellier of eXp Australia, who sold 29 Grange Road, said while a proper pool can add 5 per cent to the price of a home, they can actually be detrimental to a sale, especially if a lot of maintenance is required.

“Overall I think pools are a detriment to a house,” Hellier said. “For people who have never had a pool, then the pools are attractive, but for second and third home buyers they don’t always want them.

“It can be a deterrent to purchase, it turns people off buying a particular property.”