Czechs take plunge with pool purchases

Czech swimming pool retailers see a growing demand in private swimming pools, the daily Hospodářské noviny reported on Friday. The Czech Republic already belongs among Europe’s leaders in terms of number of private pools per head, but experts say the market has not dried up yet. At the moment, approximately every third Czech house has a swimming pool in its backyard, and the figures are expected to grow.

Photo: archive of Radio Prague

Experts say the trend is fuelled by low interest rates and favourable economic situation. Another reason is that a growing number of Czechs prefer to spend the summer holidays at home. According to the Association of Czech swimming pools and saunas, Czech buyers are most interested in less expensive pools under 50,000 crowns.

The gardening and outdoor equipment chain Mountfield, which is the country’s biggest pool retailer, has registered a 20 percent increase in sales compared to 2015, while the internet retailer Mall.cz recorded a nearly 100 percent increase in demand for swimming pools in May. “Last year witnessed a record growth in demand for swimming pools, a trend which was fuelled by the unusually hot weather,” Mountfield’s marketing director Aleš Hrouda told Hospodářské noviny on Friday. To date, Mountfield has sold over 300,000 pools.

Czech private pools provider Albixon has also recorded record sales. According to Hedvika Šebková of the company’s marketing department, its sales this year increased by 115 percent compared to the first half of 2015. She told the daily that due to low interest rate on mortgages, an increasing number of clients build the pools at the same time as constructing a new house.

Along with growing enthusiasm for new pools, Czechs are also investing in modernizing the existing pools, especially those built in the 1990s.

While the number of private pools in the country keeps increasing, public swimming pools have been losing customers in recent years. Experts say the situation is similar to the neighbouring Germany, where they have stopped building new public pools and focus on aqua parks instead.

According to the data of the European Union of Swimming Pools and Spa Associations, there are currently some 1,980 pools per 100,000 people in the Czech Republic and that figure does not include inflatable pools. Spain tops the rankings with 2,488 pools per 100,000 people, followed by France with 2,188.