Why more home owners splashed out on a swimming pool in 2025
Our love of backyard dips is showing no signs of slowing, and there are options for a range of spaces and budgets.
Australians’ love affair with backyard swimming pools is showing no signs of slowing despite the burden of high mortgage costs and an elevated cost of living.
“Pool” was the most-searched keyword on domain.com.au for 2025, and swimming pool installers have been fielding strong demand.
The demand for home swimming pools has not been slowed by the cost-of-living crisis.Credit: Laguna/Swimming Pool and Spa Association
A range of styles have been popular, from smaller pools that suit compact spaces and more limited budgets but still allow home owners to get wet and cool down, through to grander options for buyers happy to spend well above six figures.
Domain chief of research and economics Dr Nicola Powell said “pool” was always a highly ranked search keyword on the listings site.
“It really shows the lifestyle-first mindset,” she said. “I think Australians begin the property journey with how they want to live, and for many users, it’s with a pool. It’s not necessarily, immediately with ‘what can I afford?’.
“It does symbolise leisure, family time, entertaining – it’s about quality of life.”
She said some households were more affected by the cost of living than others, distinguishing between the aspiration to have a pool, and the reality.
But she said many potential buyers were less affected by affordability constraints, especially if they already owned a home and had built up equity that they could parlay into getting a swimming pool.
Summertime Pools managing director Rob Kruber has been fielding solid interest from home owners.
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“We’re well up on leads on what we were last year, so the interest is still very, very strong on people wanting pools in their backyards,” he said.
He noticed a shift in attitude that has persisted since the lockdown years, when people were spending more time at home.
“We realised our backyard is a big part of our house, and I think without having the backyard finished, it limits you to the inside of your house, and people wanted to get out a little bit more,” he said.
“Being Australians too, we love the outdoors and being able to get out. And sitting around a pool, getting the family together is super important to us.”
He said clients were requesting pool/spa combinations they can use all year round, and in terms of design, there had been interest in black pools.
