Taking the plunge on a swimming pool

Mike de Marcken has been in the swimming pool business for 20 years and says that every year has been a record year.

His company Promo Piscine will install between 80 and 90 pools in Belgian gardens this year compared to 50 five years ago. But while global warming may be responsible for the hottest April on record, climate change and milder weather is only one of the reasons why the business in swimming pools is booming. In real terms, the retail cost of a swimming pool has gone down compared to 20 years ago.

"It’s cheaper now than it’s ever been to build and maintain a pool," says de Marcken. "House prices have increased by 50-100% during the past five years but the price of pools hasn’t risen more than 2-3%, which is less than inflation and the cost of living.

"People have more money and more leisure and they are willing to invest more time and money in their gardens than before with land-scaping, ponds and pools."

The advent of cheap do-it-yourself pools sold in supermarkets has also been good for business - as soon as they break down, leak or blow away, as they do, de Marcken reckons many people decide to go for the real thing and call in the experts.

Once installed, de Marcken estimates the average pool (between 4m x 9m and 5.5m x 11m) will cost in the region of €400-€1,000 a year to run depending on how it is heated and to what temperature.

Bea Marshall installed her pool in the garden of her village house 19 years ago and says she has never regretted it. "We’ve had some lovely summers and it has changed the way I entertain in the summer." A former school secretary and now retired, she says cleaning and maintenance, which she does herself, is easy. Her water bills are not excessive because the pool is never completely emptied and she does not heat the pool because neither she nor her guests mind swimming in cold water.

No longer considered a luxury, increasingly more houses in the middle and at the lower end of the market are being built with pools or having them installed, according to de Marcken. He says that anyone who adds a traditional pool to their garden will make their money back if they sell the house.

Belgium has not yet reached the stage where a swimming pool is automatically part of the search criteria for those looking to rent or buy property. "Don’t forget this is Belgium we are talking about," says Valerie Pianta of the estate agents IBP: "We are not on the Cote d’Azur here." She says houses on the outskirts of Brussels and in the suburbs can command up to a fifth more of the asking price both sale and rental if there is a swimming pool on the property.

At the top end of the residential property market a pool is considered a normal feature of the fixtures and fittings, no more unusual than multiple garages or en suite bathrooms and dressing rooms. The only difference, according to Philippe Rosy, founding partner of the elite Engel & Völkers, is that pools are more often found inside the house rather than in the garden. In renovated houses Rosy says he often sees pools that are built to be both, allowing swimmers to move from inside to out without leaving the water - useful in winter.

Rosy agrees that pools cost less to build than before and less to maintain. He says that new houses at the top end of the market - he is talking in multiples of millions of euros here - are all being built with pools and often have two, one indoors and one outside.

• Patricia Kelly is a freelance journalist based in Brussels.

Mike de Marcken has been in the swimming pool business for 20 years and says that every year has been a record year.

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