Hot summer sees leap in pool approvals

Backing up anecdotal evidence of a great summer season, recently released figures from Reed Construction Data show that the 2008/2009 summer had 42 per cent more pool development applications than the previous summer.

On top of that, Australasian retail network PoolWerx reported its biggest ever jump in December sales, with the 2008 month up 25 percent on the previous December. At the same time, the Sydney, Melbourne and Perth consumer shows were all well attended with quality leads thick on the ground.

Presumably, the good summer sales were partly to do with the hot weather, and partly to do with the federal government’s stimulus package. There are also suggestions it is part of the “holiday at home” scenario, where high end consumers put their money into an asset they can use every year, rather than spending it on an overseas holiday.

The big winners this summer were Queensland with a massive 127 percent increase and Victoria with a 68 percent increase. South Australia, Western Australia and New South Wales had increases in the teens.

New figures also show the commercial sector did well, with new tenders for public swimming pools and aquatic centres for January and February 2009 far exceeding the previous period. Victoria/Tasmania had the biggest jump in number compared to the October-to-December numbers – shooting up a whopping 546 percent with 71 tenders, while WA jumped 725 percent to 58 tenders.

The influx of Federal Government Infrastructure Funds has been partly credited with the increases.