To swim or not to swim...

Remember: I blog from England, which should explain the pound symbols and rarity of having a pool in the backyard ;-) 

I just read an interesting article debating the value a swimming pool can add to a property. The obvious opinion is that having a swimming pool is a great selling point, but if you dig a little deeper are they more trouble than they're worth?

I know someone with a great garden and, to top it off, a great pool. At least it could be a great pool, I wouldn't know, it's been covered over for the last decade or so. They argue that it is actually so much hassle to have the pool maintained that they've practically forgotten they even have it. Personally, I always look out their kitchen window praying one day they'll clear out the gunk and hold a pool party but they're probably right. The costs and time involved in maintaining a chemical balance in the water that won't allow tadpoles to multiply or turn blonde hair green is often higher than people think. And with the British summer being more of a spring-autumn merger these days an outdoor pool may not see much action anyway.

But no matter how much I think about it logically, I'd love a swimming pool.

On Zoomf, there are currently 223 properties for sale with swimming pools in London. For as little as £152,000 you can have a nice flat and access to a swim whenever you like, you do have to share the pool with the other residents in the building, but it's better than sharing it with half of London at your local verruca-fest. Want a bit more privacy? Well then there's this lovely 20 bedroomed house in Chelsea (where else?!) with a rather luxurious indoor pool which, if you look closely at the pic, has even a cinema-like screen at one end.

You could watch indie flick Swimming Pool whilst literally being in your swimming pool, brilliant. But to have a splash in here you may have to 'pool' your resources with a few friends, at £32,000,000 that membership to a private spa is looking quite reasonable.

Maybe a hot tub would be easier to look after? Still glamorous and according to this article they're a lot cheaper to maintain costing you only around a quid a day. Zoomf has less properties on it's books with jacuzzi's, only 81 have this desirable asset. But, with the most expensive property in this results set being only £2,000,000, they may be closer in reach. Well it's always nice to dream!

To those people who are more concerned about finding a property with a working bath than a whole leisure complex you'll be pleased to know we have thousands upon thousands of properties with bathrooms! If you put enough Radox in the bath it can be like a jacuzzi anyway, right?!