Does a Pool Add Value to Your House? Australia 2026

Name: comparepoolquotes
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It depends on your market. Roy Morgan found 14% of Australians — 3.1 million people — live in a house with a pool or spa, ranging from 24% in regional Queensland to 9% in Melbourne. A pool costs $25,000–$110,000 to build, so in a cold market the price you pay is rarely the value you recover.

The short answer

14% of Australians — about 3.1 million people — live in a house with a swimming pool or spa, up from 13% in late 2018 (Roy Morgan, January–March 2023, n=2,071).
The spread is enormous: regional Queensland 24%, Brisbane 19%, Perth 17%, Sydney 16%, Adelaide 13%, Canberra 11%, Melbourne 9%, regional Victoria 8%.
A build costs $25,000–$110,000 — plunge from $25,000, fibreglass $45,000–$85,000, concrete $65,000–$110,000. That cost is certain; the resale premium is not.
We will not publish the “adds $30,000” figure as fact. It is widely repeated but we could not verify it at the survey itself, so we say where it comes from and leave it there.
Condition beats existence. A compliant barrier and a current certificate read as an asset to a buyer; a failing pool fence reads as a project, and buyers discount projects hard.
A pool follows you into the sale. In NSW a contract of sale must carry a certificate of registration and a certificate of compliance, valid 3 years — a cost and a deadline, not a bonus.

Households living with a pool or spa, by capital city and region — Roy Morgan, January–March 2023
Where	Live in a house with a pool or spa	What that suggests for resale
Regional Queensland	24%	A pool is close to an expectation, not a differentiator
Brisbane	19%	Common enough that buyers price it in
Perth	17%	Strong climate case, wide buyer acceptance
Sydney	16%	Above the national average, but land value dominates the sale price
Adelaide	13%	Around the national average
Canberra	11%	Below average; short season, cold winters
Melbourne	9%	A minority feature; a real share of buyers count it as a cost
Regional Victoria	8%	The weakest case in the data we could verify
Australia	14% (3.1 million people)	Up from 13% in late 2018

What the ownership data actually shows

The most useful verified number in this whole question is not a dollar figure. It is how many people around you already have a pool. Roy Morgan, surveying 2,071 Australians aged 14 and over between January and March 2023, found 3.1 million Australians (14%) live in a house with a swimming pool or spa, up from 13% in late 2018.

The national figure hides the thing that matters. Ownership runs at 24% in regional Queensland and 9% in Melbourne — nearly a threefold difference between two parts of the same country. Brisbane sits at 19%, Perth 17%, Sydney 16%, Adelaide 13%, Canberra 11% and regional Victoria 8%.

Read that as a proxy for buyer demand, because it is one. In a market where a quarter of houses have a pool, a buyer without one is a buyer who has already decided they want one. In a market where fewer than one in ten do, a meaningful share of your buyers are looking at your pool and calculating the running cost and the fence.

The $30,000 figure, and why we are not publishing it as fact

Search this question and you will meet the same claim on page after page: a pool adds an average of about $30,000, in a range of $10,000 to $100,000. It is usually attributed to a Swimart pool owners' survey.

We could not verify it at the survey itself. The figure appears in property-media summaries and builder marketing, not in a primary document we could read and cite, and we do not know the sample size, the year, the question asked or whether respondents were pool owners estimating their own asset's worth — which would be the least reliable form of valuation evidence there is.

So it is here as something people say, not as something we are telling you. If a builder or agent quotes you a resale premium, ask them what it is sourced from. That question does more work than any number we could put in this paragraph.

The build cost is the number you can actually be certain of

Against an unverifiable resale premium sits a very verifiable cost. Published Australian construction ranges put a plunge pool at $25,000–$45,000, a full-size fibreglass pool at $45,000–$85,000 and a concrete pool at $65,000–$110,000, with premium concrete builds running well past that.

Then add what the pool costs every year it exists: roughly $1,200–$2,500 in power, chemicals, water and servicing, and a compliance certificate on a fixed cycle. Over a ten-year hold, running costs alone can approach the cost of the shell.

The honest framing is that a pool is a lifestyle purchase that sometimes returns part of its cost, not an investment that sometimes returns a lifestyle. If the resale case is what is persuading you, the data above should make you cautious outside the warm markets.

A pool changes who your buyers are, not just what they pay

Valuers and agents talk about a pool narrowing or widening the buyer pool rather than adding a fixed sum, and the ownership spread supports that. A family with young children may rule out a house with a pool over supervision and fencing; another family may rule out every house without one.

What appears to move the needle consistently is not the pool's existence but its condition and its integration. A pool that is fenced compliantly, has a current certificate, sits sensibly in the yard and looks maintained reads as an asset. A pool with an ageing interior, a barrier that will not pass, and no landscaping reads as a project — and buyers price projects harshly, usually well above what the fix actually costs.

That is the part you control, and it is far cheaper than the pool itself.

The paperwork transfers with the property

In New South Wales a contract for the sale of a property with a pool must carry a certificate of registration and a valid certificate of compliance — or a certificate of non-compliance, which gives the buyer 90 days from settlement to rectify. A NSW certificate lasts 3 years. Queensland requires a pool safety certificate on sale and lease, valid 2 years for a non-shared pool and 1 year for a shared one. Victoria works on a fixed 4-year cycle rather than the transaction.

None of that adds value. It is a deadline and a cost attached to the asset, and it is worth pricing in before you decide the pool is a net gain. Being organised about it does help the sale: a current certificate removes a negotiating lever from the buyer.

Common questions

How much value does a pool add to a house in Australia?

There is no reliable national figure and we will not invent one. The widely repeated claim of about $30,000 traces to an industry survey we could not verify at source. What is verifiable is demand: Roy Morgan found 14% of Australians live in a house with a pool or spa, ranging from 24% in regional Queensland to 9% in Melbourne. Where ownership is high, buyers expect a pool; where it is low, many do not want one.

Does a pool add value in Melbourne?

The case is weakest there in the data we could verify. Roy Morgan puts pool ownership at 9% in Melbourne and 8% in regional Victoria, against 24% in regional Queensland. A pool in Melbourne is a minority feature with a shorter usable season, and a real share of buyers will treat it as a maintenance liability.

Is a pool a good investment?

Treat it as a lifestyle purchase, not an investment. The cost is certain — $25,000–$110,000 to build plus roughly $1,200–$2,500 a year to run — and the resale premium is not. If you will swim in it most of the year, the case is straightforward. If the only argument is resale, the ownership data above should make you cautious outside the warm markets.

Does a pool make a house harder to sell?

It changes who buys, more than whether it sells. A well-maintained, compliantly fenced pool with a current certificate reads as an asset. A pool with a failing barrier and an ageing interior reads as a project, and buyers discount projects far more than the repair costs. Condition and compliance are what you control.

Do I have to tell a buyer about the pool?

In New South Wales you must do more than tell them: the contract of sale has to include a certificate of registration and a certificate of compliance, or a certificate of non-compliance giving the buyer 90 days from settlement to fix it. Queensland requires a pool safety certificate on sale. Victoria's obligation runs on a fixed cycle rather than the sale.

Does an above-ground pool add value?

We could not find credible Australian valuation evidence either way, so we do not publish a figure. What is clear is that an above-ground pool is generally treated as a chattel rather than a permanent improvement, and if it holds water more than 300mm deep it still requires a compliant barrier in every state.

Sources

General information only, current at 2026-09-03. Pool rules differ by state and by council, and penalty amounts are updated regularly. Confirm your own obligations with your council or a registered inspector before acting.

Does a pool add value to your house in Australia?