Else Beekman
Since people have been locked down in Spain during the corona pandemic, outdoor spaces have been in high demand. With growing tourist demand and the ‘champagne effect’ after years of restrictions, interest in outdoor spaces continues to increase. Renting out these spaces has also grown into a lucrative business. Some people rent out their private swimming pool by the hour or half a day and earn a lot of money from it.
“Renting private pools is now an increasingly popular option throughout Spain and is increasingly attracting the attention of both owners and swimmers,” explains Gerard Xalabarde in the newspaper La Vanguardia. He is CEO of Cocopool, an online platform from Barcelona that allows more than 250 swimming pools to be rented, including some in the Valencia region. People rent a swimming pool with outdoor space around it for barbecues, family parties, birthdays and even baby showers.
Growth in Andalucia and the Valencia region
Most of Cocopool’s offers come from Madrid and Barcelona. However, the platform has noticed growth in Andalucia and the Comunidad Valenciana in recent months. More and more people want to rent out their swimming pool there too. “We are receiving more and more offers from potential hosts,” said Xalabarde. He also indicates that the average reservation in the Comunidad Valenciana is €480 for about six hours. According to the company, owners earn an average of around €4,000 by renting out their swimming pool during the summer season. Some owners can even earn up to €10,000.
Rental of outdoor spaces for events
The phenomenon is not new, but is growing in parallel with the increase in the use of private spaces for similar events, especially in the low season. Four years ago, the French company Swimmy started renting outdoor spaces for private events and parties, also in the Comunidad Valenciana.
Diverse offering
In addition to Barcelona and Madrid, the Swimmy website currently also has locations in the provinces of Valencia, Alicante, Castellón, Malaga, Seville, Murcia and Bilbao. The descriptions emphasise suitability for birthdays, family gatherings and other celebrations. Swimmy offers its services under the guise of ‘sharing happiness’. Some descriptions are very detailed and mention facilities such as sun loungers, chill-out areas, barbecues and even trampolines for children, who are welcome but under “extra supervision”.
A user who rented a swimming pool for private use explains that she arranged the reservation via the app. The owner rented out the ground floor with a barbecue. “The owners stayed in the house, but we didn’t see them all morning. There was a mobile toilet on the terrace for toilet use, so we didn’t have to go inside,” says the user.
Legal side of the story
Can private individuals simply rent out part of their home? The owner does not need a tourist permit to rent out a swimming pool, because there is no overnight stay. The income must be declared afterwards as “income from real estate”, the CEO explains. At Cocopool, owners determine the price themselves based on the characteristics of their space and pool, ranging from €30 per person per day to €10,000 for the entire summer season.
According to the regional regulations of the Comunidad Valenciana, this type of rental does not fall under the definition of tourist housing. This only includes entire properties (apartments, villas, terraced houses) that are regularly rented for tourist, holiday or recreational purposes. In addition, Article 47 of Consell Decree 10/2021 of January 22 stipulates that the property must be rented out in full and that rental per room is not permitted.
Do you need a permit to rent out your swimming pool in Spain?
Is a permit required for this form of rental if the swimming pool also includes the use of the toilet? According to Cocopool, the host and swimmer sign a temporary rental contract to release the owner from liability for possible damage on the terrace. “In general, hosts do not take out insurance. If they do, it will be liability insurance for one-day events,” Xalabarde explains. This policy covers possible damage to third parties during a public or private, cultural, sporting, social or business event.
How it started
Swimmy started in France in 2017. The Francaise Räphaelle came up with the idea when she was at the swimming pool and realised how little she used it and that people without a swimming pool would also like to be able to take a dip every now and then. That’s how she decided to start the company. That was so successful that a few years later she also started in Spain. After all, Spain is the country in Europe with the largest number of private swimming pools after France.
According to the association of swimming pool professionals ASOFAP, Spain has almost 1.3 million private swimming pools. 1,291,206 swimming facilities are registered (1,277,052 open-air and 14,154 indoor). This amounts to 2.85 swimming pools per 100 inhabitants (based on the total population census in Spain, minus the Basque Country and Navarre). Seen another way, this concerns one swimming pool per 35 inhabitants. The absolute figures and percentages are very diverse per community. With Andalucia in first place with a total of 306,151 swimming pools (3.60 swimming pools per 100 inhabitants). At the other end of the spectrum is the northwestern Spanish region of Cantabria with 4,350 swimming pools (0.73 swimming pools per 100 inhabitants).
This made Spain an excellent market for pool rental and, combined with the pandemic, accelerated this market’s success.
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