OTTAWA -- With more people staying home in 2020, home renovations in Ontario were on the rise. And for Ottawa homeowners, backyard swimming was a top priority.

“As a homeowner, your home now has become more than just your home,” says Carmelo Lipso, COO of the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation. “As a result of the pandemic, the restrictions with limitations around travel, individuals requiring the need to stay home more, resulted in probably more disposable income.”

That disposable income is sometimes being spent on new pools, according to recent data.

Ottawa saw 122 shed permits, 202 garage permits, and 936 permits backyard pool permits, leading all of Ontario.

“In Ottawa for example when it comes to swimming pool permits, for the last three years, 2017, 18, 19, we were around the 500 range for new permits for pools. Then we saw that increase in 2020,” says Lipsi.

It took the Candace Slate more than a year to finally get their hands on an above ground pool.

“We have a teenager, so it just gives us something to do,” says Slate. “Last year we tried to get one and it was impossible, there were none. This year, we went in January to one of our local pool installers and they were booking into mid to late August.”

Dominic Grandmaison is the co-owner, Pool Builders in Stittsville. He says they have been going non-stop since the snow melted.

“We were all sold out last summer,” he says.

The demand is so much higher than the supply that manufacturers are now prepping for 2022.

“Typically how it works is you have the manufacturer and the distributor. So, the distributor's yard usually is fully stocked. So, when you come to place a pool order, your order will come in two weeks. Where as now, the distributor's location is completely empty,” Grandmaison explains.

With the home now being more than just a home, it doesn’t seem like the renovation trend is going to slow down anytime soon.

“It’s a place that you live, it's the place that you work, it's a place that you entertain more,” says Lipsi. “So, they’ve had to make some changes to be able to accommodate the ever-changing landscape and the ever-changing need of what that home means to them.”