2020, a big year for private pools worldwide

Hot weather with people prevented from going to public pools and record investment in real estate led to an explosion in private pool sales in 2020. A result far better than the sector expected not just in France, but all over the world! Review of what happened and thrilled us all.

​

A record year for private pool industry in France

In pool and spa sales, France consolidated its position as second only to the USA and just ahead of Italy. At a press conference in April 2021, the French Pool and Spa Federation announced that pool sales were up 28% compared to 2019, due to lockdowns and travel restrictions. This confirms the forecasts made at the end of 2020.

In cash terms sales were “only” up 21.5% as clients chose smaller pools and bought pools in kit form they assembled themselves or with only a little help to save on labor costs. Despite Covid restrictions, pool professionals met all deadlines and delivered 27.7% more pools than in 2019.

Source: FPP

In Italy, demand outstripped pool supply

Although the public pool market suffered from Covid protocols and the sharp fall in tourism, the private pool market grew faster than ever before. 

Perceived as a fundamental in creating an oasis of wellbeing, private pools generated a keen interest in home owners with demand multiplied by 10 in 2020. What slowed the market down were the bureaucratic delays in obtaining planning permission to excavate pools and the out-of-stock situation of above-ground pools.

For Italian pool market professionals, there is no doubt that if the pool industry had been better prepared upstream, results for 2020 would have been far better!

Source: Happy Aquatics

Ups and downs in Spain

The ASOFAP (The Spanish Pool and Spa Federation) presented a barometer clarifying the difficulties of the pool industry in the country of Cervantes. Because of its very polarized market between private pool and public pools, the latter much affected by the Covid crisis, turnover in the pool sector overall fell by 1,58% vs. 2019 to 1.254 billion Euros.

With 25,000 new swimming pools created in 2020, Spain, the 4th biggest market in the world, performed far less well than the top three and faces several challenges, notably the lack of rules and regulations for safety equipment and problems with training. Private pool professionals are more confident about the future than public pool builders: 61.6% of them think that the private pool market will grow in 2021!

Source : L'Activité Piscine

The boom in private pools: an international phenomenon

In the United States, Germany and the United Kingdom, the trend in 2020 was the same - private pool sales grew. The United States, the biggest pool market in the world, grew 1.4% - from 1.07 to 1.09 billion dollars (source: Statista).

Severely impacted by the Covid crisis, people saved more and invested. Buyers were influenced by favorable weather as the summer of 2020 was particularly hot.

Read also: Overview of the international post-Covid market for swimming pools

The figures for private pools in 2020 are excellent, but take care! Shortage of materials and difficulties with recruitment push new projects into 2022. Will over-full order books be the pool sector’s next challenge?

© Photo credit: Alena Ozerova / Adobe Stock