Pools stay hot despite cool summer
Soaring cottage prices fuelling permits for pool construction
Tory Crowder and her family were looking forward to their old coffin-shaped pool getting an overhaul into a more modern, sleek rectangular shape this summer.
So they took the plunge and sank $90,000 into a luxury pool and deck. And things were going swimmingly with construction until last March when the heavy rain hit. Right now they have a big hole in their backyard at their home in the Bloor St. W. and Royal York Rd. area where the deluxe new pool they purchased will eventually be, whenever the builders have time to get to it.
“They’re crazy busy. They’d prefer to put it off until next year, if possible,” said Crowder, who is also doing an extensive home renovation in conjunction with the backyard revamp, since moving would actually cost even more in this market.
Though it seems unusual after a very wet spring and a late start to summer, the pool construction business is actually in a bull market. It began last year with demand soaring for backyard pools amid a very hot, humid and sunny summer, creating a spike in pool installations in Canada and the Greater Toronto Area, which is one of the industry’s biggest markets.
In fact, the total number of swimming pool building permits registered across the country last year was the third highest in the last five decades, according to data from Statistics Canada.
The standout year coincided with record housing prices, prompting increased consumer spending on homes since cottage prices have also become out of reach for most people — coupled with the annoyance of unavoidable traffic heading to cottage country.
“I love the idea of a cottage and at the same time I can’t stand the commute,” said Tracey Fines, one of those homeowners who had a custom-built, luxury concrete pool installed last year at her Bennington Heights home in the Bayview and Moore Aves. area.
“It’s our oasis in the city, so I don’t have to go anywhere to have fun. I’m in the backyard and at peace,” said Fines, a luxury home designer who created her serene backyard concept that includes a retaining wall and waterfall.
She admits being nostalgic about swimming pools since she grew up with one and wanted to give her three children the same experience.
Overall, there was an increase of 22 per cent in pool building permits in Canada, from 10,698 in 2015 to 13,054 in 2016. And the number of permits issued between the second and third quarters of last year — the key pool building season — actually surpassed the total number of those issued in all of 2015, according to Stats Canada. Data also show permit registrations in metropolitan areas including the GTA increased by 25 per cent in 2016, representing a total of 1,894 more registered permits than the previous year.
For Jennifer Gannon, proprietor of BonaVista Pools in Toronto, it has meant a jam-packed summer of pool, spa and hot tub building.
“It’s definitely a hot time,” said Gannon, who, with her siblings, runs the 40-yearold business that was started by their father. They cater to the luxury market in which customers often spend upwards of $100,000 for not just your everyday pool for laps and cannonballs.
Her company creates what she calls “custom artscapes” where the sky’s the limit: heated hydro pools for year-round use, fully-automated pools with tanning shelves, swim-up bars with babbling brooks and infinity pools that totally blow the old school kidney-shaped variety out of the water.
“These days real estate is so valuable, so people are thinking of how to make their home a dream destination. They literally want to make their home their castle,” Gannon said.
Her company has been so busy that they were working on projects all through what was a relatively mild winter and are still going full-tilt with lots in the pipeline, she said.
“Last summer we had such great weather that everyone wanted a pool and planned to put one in this year. Then all the spring rain and flooding held everything up since we can’t dig when it is that wet, which meant the first part of this summer was a huge catch-up period for pools,” she said.
Fortunately the light rain that has been the norm this summer doesn’t delay building, which has made for a very busy July for the pool business, Gannon said.
“The rainy spring created an urgent demand for construction this summer. We’re only just getting caught up,” she said.
Those who haven’t ordered one yet “would be getting in line” for a new pool now, she noted.
Custom concrete pools typically take three to six weeks to build and the rest depends on the degree of customization, from outdoor kitchens and elaborate patios with waterfalls and fire pits to whatever accessories and landscaping that the homeowner wants to go along with it. The industry has come a long way, moving from the oddly-shaped pools with slides and cheesy above-ground pools for the kids toward more modern looking rectangular lap pools for today’s more fitness conscious consumer. Pools today also tend to be more shallow, which is appealing to parents and seniors.
Swim spas — which allow you to swim continuously against a water current and take up far less space — are in demand too, particularly in big cities such as Toronto where there typically isn’t much backyard space to play with. (And less than 5 per cent of pools in the GTA are indoor, Gannon said.) “Our home backs onto Park Lawn Cemetery, and our old pool was the crappy vinyl kind which was plopped straight in the middle of the yard and shaped like a coffin — everyone made jokes about our coffin-shaped pool by the cemetery,” Crowder said.
“The one we are getting is more linear and off to one side of the backyard,” she explained.
But homeowners take note: that expensive backyard creation doesn’t always mean you’ll get more for your house when you sell.
“Cost does not necessarily translate immediately into value,” said Keith Lancastle, chief executive of the Appraisal Institute of Canada.
“You’ll get people who will say, for instance: ‘I’ve put in a $75,000 weight room and sauna in the basement of this house. The house should be worth $75,000 more.’ Not necessarily.
“There are certain things that tend to have a more direct and consistent impact on value: updated kitchens, updated bathrooms, roofs,” he said.
Lancastle explained the role of appraisers is to provide an unbiased opinion of market value at a given point. They look at comparable sales, what is going on in the market, but they also take into account things such as the cost of construction, and what it would actually cost to produce the property again, he said.
“The one that always jumps out, the biggest one is a swimming pool. ‘I’ve got a $100,000 swimming pool in the backyard’. But (some buyers) don’t really want a swimming pool so they are not going to pay the premium for it that you think it’s worth,” he says.
“Swimming pools are something that’s very, very subjective (in the real estate market). Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.”
But there’s no shortage of homeowners who are willing to go off the deep end in expense in order to “create a resort feel” in their very own backyard, said Gannon, but admitted: “It is an investment.”
But if you ask Fines, she’ll say: “It’s heaven.”