Swimming Pools boom in popularity in 2025

Australians’ love affair with backyard swimming pools is showing no signs of slowing despite the burden of high mortgage costs and an elevated cost of living.

“Pool” was the most-searched keyword on domain.com.au for 2025, and swimming pool installers have been fielding strong demand.

A range of styles have been popular, from smaller pools that suit compact spaces and more limited budgets but still allow home owners to get wet and cool down, through to grander options for buyers happy to spend well above six figures.

Domain chief of research and economics Dr Nicola Powell said “pool” was always a highly ranked search keyword on the listings site.

“It really shows the lifestyle-first mindset,” she said. “I think Australians begin the property journey with how they want to live, and for many users, it’s with a pool. It’s not necessarily, immediately with ‘what can I afford?’.

“It does symbolise leisure, family time, entertaining – it’s about quality of life.”

She said some households were more affected by the cost of living than others, distinguishing between the aspiration to have a pool, and the reality.

But she said many potential buyers were less affected by affordability constraints, especially if they already owned a home and had built up equity that they could parlay into getting a swimming pool.

Plungie chief executive Cam Levick has been busy shipping Plungies this summer, and all year.

“We’ve shipped more pools in 2025 calendar year than we did in calendar year 2024, probably up about 20 per cent,” he said.

He has seen demand for smaller pools, like their smallest pool that can be used for hot and cold plunge, as home owners want more features in their backyards such as saunas and decks – although their largest pool remains their biggest seller.

Round pools and modern above-ground pools have been in demand as design features, he said, and wellness was on buyers’ minds. Even owners in first home buyer areas are thinking about ways to add pools without endless budgets.

His bookings for this January are higher than the same time over the past two to three years.

“We’re expecting that next year will be another growth on this year,” he said. “There’s no doubt that there is price sensitivity in the market and the uncertainty about interest rates.

“But I expect that January inquiries will be busy and lead into a really good year.”