Will a swimming pool add value to your Melbourne home?

Dave Tucker, who owns the North Warrandyte home, said he and his wife, Nickey, remodeled it with a pool about 11 years ago.

“We’ve been to Bali and Asia many times, so we wanted our home to have a similar feel,” Tucker said.

The pool, he said, has been the heart of their home, a place where they can socialize with their two children, who are now young adults, and relax and cool off on hot days.

“It’s really a place where the kids and their friends can all gather – it’s really a good magnet for family gatherings,” he said.

The Tuckers are now downsizing on the Mornington Peninsula, where homes with pools are popular, even on the beach.

A modern four bedroom house with a pool terrace on Olive Street, Blairgowrie sold for $2.825 million in August last year.

Blairgowrie, an older four-bedroom house on a similarly sized block but no pool on Court Street, sold for $2.05 million two months later.

Josh Callaghan of Fletcher’s Mornington Peninsula believed the Court Street home could have asked for $2.35 million to $2.4 million if it had a pool.

“Sixty percent of the people walking through the house were thinking about where they would put a pool — would they put it in the backyard or till the land and have it line up with the patio?” he said.

It was similar in the Bayside area, where about half of buyers interested in some properties want a place to swim at home, although others may be put off by the maintenance requirements.

“I always say it’s actually 50/50 – 50 per cent want it and 50 per cent don’t want it,” said Stephen Wigley, director of Hodges Sandringham. “Some buyers don’t want to deal with the maintenance and safety aspect of a pool.”

Maintenance, including pool chemicals and cleaning services, can cost $100 a fortnight in the Bayside area, Wigley said.

But homes with pools can still fetch higher prices than those without.

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A four bedroom house with a pool at 43 Grange Road, Sandringham, sold for $2.537 million in September, while a similar house on a similar sized block with no pool at 29 Grange Road, Sandringham, sold for $2.4 million in November US dollars was sold, as the sales records show.

Frank Hellier of eXp Australia, who sold 29 Grange Road, said that while a proper pool can add 5 per cent to the price of a home, it can actually be detrimental to a sale, especially if a lot of maintenance is required.

“Overall, I think pools are a disadvantage for a home,” Hellier said. “For people who have never had a pool, the pools are attractive, but for second and third home buyers, they don’t always want them.

“It can be a buying deterrent, it puts people off buying a particular property.”