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Pooled asset
Glamour, cost
and saleability
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Around
3,500 new private swimming pools are ordered every year
in this country. About half of these, says the industry
association SPATA (www.spata.co.uk),
are concrete pools which, at £20,000 or more, are
the most expensive. Some 80% are outdoor and most cost
at least a few hundred pounds each year to maintain. So,
if you invest in a swimming pool, will you get your money
back – or more – when you come to sell? Much,
says Mark Wallace of Jackson-Stops’s Weybridge office,
depends upon its setting and the value of your property:
“It’s all about glamour. A good pool,
properly landscaped to be part of the garden, can look
fantastic and add masses of value, but you’ve got
to have the right house to carry it off. Generally, that
means that the more expensive your house is, the more
a pool will pay for itself.”
Below: Suffolk, £950,000
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Philip
Gilbey of our Newmarket office, agrees, but adds that
indoor pools are regarded very differently: “Buyers
appreciate that this is something they will be able to
use all year round. Even at more mainstream price levels
– say around £500,000 – there is a significant
minority that will jump at the chance of having their
own indoor pool.”
As with most assets, there are some
‘dos and don’ts’, chief amongst which are
fencing to prevent access by small children and, if you
have to compromise, to go for quality over size. Mark
Wallace also warns of the necessity to keep your pool
looking as good as new: “Faded grandeur
might be seen as charming in a country house” he
says, “but with a pool, it
just won’t wash.”
Above: Surrey, £4.9 million
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Below: North Wales, 850,000 guide |
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