A heated pool in Maresme: what it costs, and what "heated" means in the listing

From October the Maresme listings start mentioning a heated pool, and the phrase does a lot of quiet work. Sometimes it means a heat pump that keeps the water at 28 degrees through Christmas. Sometimes it means a solar cover and a hopeful owner. The difference is several hundred euros a month, and it usually sits in the small print rather than the photos.

The pool in a Maresme villa is usually 40 to 50 cubic metres

Most of the private pools between Montgat and Sant Pol are around 8 by 4 metres, with a depth between 1.2 and 1.8, which lands at 40 to 50 m³. A few of the older houses in Cabrils or Alella have something bigger, and the new builds often squeeze in a 6 by 3 plunge pool with a cover. Volume is the number that matters, because heating cost scales with it almost linearly.

Four systems hide behind one word

• Heat pump. The default in rentals built or renovated in the last fifteen years. It moves heat from the air into the water at a coefficient of performance of roughly 4 to 6, so one kilowatt of electricity delivers four to six kilowatts of heat. This is the system that makes winter swimming realistic.
• Electric resistance. Cheaper to install, expensive to run, one kilowatt in for one kilowatt out. If you see a small inline heater with a thick cable and no outdoor unit, this is probably it. In a 45 m³ pool it can double the running cost against a heat pump.
• Solar thermal panels. Nearly free to run once installed, useless in December and January, and only really effective from March to October. A villa with solar heating is a lovely thing in April and a cold bath in February.
• Nothing at all, plus a cover. The pool is closed from October to May, the cover keeps the leaves out, and the word heated appears because the pump room has an old heater disconnected since 2019. Ask for a photo of the equipment, not of the water.

The bill: roughly 150 to 200 euros a month

Take a 50 m³ pool, a heat pump working at a realistic winter coefficient, and electricity at around 0.24 euros per kilowatt hour including taxes and the fixed term. Holding the water at 26 to 28 degrees from December to March lands at roughly 115 to 145 euros a month in steady state, and 150 to 200 once you account for the cold snaps, the pump running longer and the fact that nobody keeps the cover on as diligently as they promised.

Leave the pool uncovered overnight in January and the number moves toward 250 to 400. Evaporation is where most of the heat goes, and an uncovered pool in cold air loses it faster than the heat pump can replace it at a sane cost. This is why the cover is not an accessory. It is half the system.

Why landlords quote heating as an extra

In winter lets along the coast it is common to see the pool heated only on request, billed at something like 100 euros a week or 400 a month. That is not greed so much as arithmetic: the owner pays the electricity at the villa's contracted tariff, and a tenant who likes the water at 30 degrees in February can quietly double a bill that the rent was never meant to cover.

The pool service itself, cleaning and chemicals, is a separate line, normally 80 to 150 euros a month for a private pool and up to 250 for a large one visited twice a week. On a long let that is usually the owner's cost, because it is maintenance rather than consumption. On a short winter let it is often bundled into the price.

Seven things to check before you believe the word heated

A viewing in November tells you more than any listing. Bring these questions:

• Make and model of the heat pump, and its rated heating capacity in kilowatts. A 5 kW unit on a 50 m³ pool works hard; a 9 kW unit has margin. If nobody can tell you, the equipment label is on the side of the unit.
• Contracted electrical power. A heat pump plus a villa with electric heating can push past the potencia contratada and trip the main breaker. Upgrading the contract takes a call and a higher fixed charge; it does not happen overnight.
• The cover. Automatic slats are the good case; a bubble cover on a roller is fine if it is intact and wide enough. A torn cover that leaves a third of the surface open is a monthly bill with a nice view.
• Insulation and pipework. External exposed pipes lose heat, and an uninsulated pool with no thermal break loses it through the walls. In older Llavaneres houses this is often the real reason the previous tenant gave up on winter swimming.
• Who pays the electricity. If the pool pump sits on the villa's meter and the lease is inclusive, you are paying for the previous tenant's habits too. Ask for the last three bills, not an estimate.
• Salt or chlorine, and who buys the chemicals. A salt system with a tired cell reads as a cheap pool until the cell needs replacing, and that is a four-figure part.
• The lease clause. It should say whether heating is included, to what temperature, between which dates, and who operates the cover. Without those four, "heated pool" is an opinion.

The Catalonia water rules still apply

Since the drought cycles of 2023 and 2024, filling and refilling a private pool in Catalonia has been subject to restrictions that come and go with the reservoir levels. A lease cannot promise you unlimited refills in a drought episode, and an owner who says otherwise is promising something the Generalitat may overrule. Heating water you are not allowed to top up is a strange kind of luxury.

What it is actually worth

A villa with a genuinely heated pool in Teià or Cabrils rents for maybe 5 to 10% more than the same house with a cold pool, which is less than the annual cost of heating it. So do not pay a large premium for the label. Pay for the equipment, the cover and a clear clause, and treat the extra 150 to 200 euros a month as the price of swimming in January. If that sounds reasonable, it is a wonderful thing to have. If it sounds like a lot, a cold pool and a good wetsuit cost less.