Swimming pool buying intentions jump 21 per cent over 2022

Commonwealth Bank of Australia research has shown that consumer interest in purchasing a residential swimming pool jumped 21.4 per cent.

As the pool and spa industry is well aware, this is on the back of a surge of interest in creating backyard entertainment, leisure and wellness spaces with the swimming pool or spa as the prime focus.

This trend skyrocketed during the covid period, with demand through the roof and many builders filling their books for months to come.

At the same time, “pool” was the top search item on Domain.com.au in 2022 - in fact, it has been the top searched item for the three years since covid began.

The 21.4 per cent rise in the pools category in the year to November appeared in Commonwealth Bank’s Household Spending Intentions Index, which measures spending among CBA customers and Google Trends search data. It focuses not only on what consumers are spending money on, but on what they intend to spend money on.

Commonwealth Bank’s chief economist Stephen Halmarick says it is a significant increase for the category and consistent with people’s focus on improving the liveability of their home during lockdowns.

He says that while having to spend more time at home, they’ve decided to also spend more money on their home -  improving the home and improving the liveability of their home.

Additionally, the data shows that for the year to November, there was also an increase in spending on swimming pool services.

While the covid period is petering out - and raising interest rates are starting to bite - there still seems to be a backlog in demand.

Factors affecting meeting the demand include supply chain issues and skills shortages.