Retail business valuation benchmarks for New Zealand
Retail business valuation evidence for New Zealand, drawn from 2,263 verified retail sales recorded by licensed NZ business brokers. Indexed price trends, median time-to-sell, recent comparables and a regional heatmap, covering ANZSIC Division G Retail Trade nationwide.
The state of the NZ retail business sales market
Retail Trade (ANZSIC Division G) is consistently one of the most active SME transaction categories in New Zealand. Bizstats has recorded 2,263 retail business sales, spanning suburban clothing and giftware stores through to multi-site hardware, pharmacy and specialty food operations. Auckland accounts for approximately 50% of all retail transactions, followed by Canterbury, Bay of Plenty and Waikato.
The indexed median retail sale price reached 224 by 2025, a 124% cumulative rise over fifteen years, or roughly 5.5% compounded annually. The year-to-year path is uneven (each year's median rests on a modest sample of recorded sales), but the long-run direction is firmly upward.
Median time-to-sell has been notably stable, close to four months in most years, and 3.5 months by 2025. Retail businesses change hands quickly: well-located leasehold stores with clean financials transact fastest, while sub-scale stores in thinner regional catchments take longer. SDE multiples, by contrast, have stayed broadly flat: buyers have re-rated headline sale prices far more than the multiple paid per dollar of earnings.
Sale price and SDE multiple figures are indexed to 2010 = 100. The +% values show cumulative change since the 2010 baseline. The full dollar medians, by sub-category, are available in a Bizstats valuation report.
Indexed median retail sale price
Median sale price for New Zealand retail business transactions, indexed to 2010 = 100. The underlying dollar medians by sub-category are published in the Bizstats valuation report.
Commentary: The retail price index reached 224 by 2025, a 124% cumulative rise, roughly 5.5% compounded annually. The path is volatile: with only a few dozen recorded sales behind each year's median, the index can swing sharply between years (briefly touching 300). Read the multi-year trend rather than any single point: the long-run direction is a clear, substantial appreciation.
Indexed median retail SDE multiple
Median SDE (Seller's Discretionary Earnings) multiple paid for New Zealand retail businesses, indexed to 2010 = 100. The price index tracks what businesses sell for; the SDE multiple index tracks what buyers are paying per dollar of earnings. Actual multiples by sub-category are published in a Bizstats valuation report.
Commentary: Unlike sale prices, the retail SDE multiple has not structurally re-rated. The index has oscillated in a 86–118 band since 2010 with no sustained trend, sitting at 103 by 2025, essentially level with the 2010 baseline. That stability is characteristic of a mature SME category: rising sale prices reflect larger, stronger businesses coming to market more than buyers paying a richer multiple per dollar of earnings.
What buyers pay for in a retail business sale
The average split of the sale price into tangible assets, stock and intangibles (brand, customer base and other non-physical value) for NZ retail business transactions, year by year. Each bar is a 100% view: it shows the mix, not the dollar value.
- Tangibles
- Stock
- Intangibles
| Year | Tangibles | Stock | Intangibles |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 27% | 27% | 46% |
| 2011 | 29% | 26% | 45% |
| 2012 | 25% | 22% | 53% |
| 2013 | 25% | 23% | 52% |
| 2014 | 24% | 24% | 52% |
| 2015 | 20% | 25% | 55% |
| 2016 | 21% | 22% | 57% |
| 2017 | 14% | 17% | 69% |
| 2018 | 14% | 21% | 65% |
| 2019 | 13% | 25% | 62% |
| 2020 | 15% | 22% | 63% |
| 2021 | 8% | 22% | 70% |
| 2022 | 7% | 18% | 75% |
| 2023 | 10% | 29% | 61% |
| 2024 | 11% | 20% | 69% |
| 2025 | 4% | 25% | 71% |
Commentary: Retail is one of the few sectors where saleable stock is a material part of the deal. By 2025 the median retail sale price split roughly 4% tangible assets (fittings and equipment), 25% stock and 71% intangibles. The intangible share has moved from 46% in 2010 to 71% (+25 points): buyers increasingly pay for an established customer base and location rather than shelves and stock alone.
Median time-to-sell for NZ retail businesses
Median months from listing to unconditional sale for NZ retail business transactions. A leading indicator of buyer demand. Tighter time-to-sell signals stronger competition for available stock.
Commentary: Time-to-sell has been remarkably steady, with a median close to four months through most of the period, a high of 6 months in 2024 and 3.5 months by 2025. A consistently short time-to-sell signals a broad, active buyer pool: inventory-led retail businesses are relatively transparent to assess, which keeps well-presented listings moving.
Recent retail business sales in NZ
A sample of recent anonymised retail transactions. Each row shows ANZSIC sub-category, region, revenue, SDE and sale month, with revenue and SDE rounded to the nearest $100,000. Full anonymised comparables with exact sale prices and SDE multiples are in a Bizstats valuation report.
| ANZSIC | Region | Revenue | SDE | SDE X | Sold |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Garden Supplies Retailing | Auckland | $300,000 | $100,000 | ••• | Apr 2026 |
| Other Specialised Food Retailing | Otago | $500,000 | $100,000 | ••• | Apr 2026 |
| Other Store-Based Retailing n.e.c. | Auckland | $1,600,000 | $300,000 | ••• | Apr 2026 |
| Manchester and Other Textile Goods Retailing | Auckland | $1,100,000 | $200,000 | ••• | Feb 2026 |
| Other Specialised Food Retailing | Auckland | $2,200,000 | $300,000 | ••• | Feb 2026 |
| Hardware and Building Supplies Retailing | Manawatu | $800,000 | $200,000 | ••• | Feb 2026 |
| Other Store-Based Retailing n.e.c. | Canterbury | $800,000 | $200,000 | ••• | Jan 2026 |
| Other Specialised Food Retailing | Taranaki | $2,100,000 | $300,000 | ••• | Jan 2026 |
| Clothing Retailing | Canterbury | $400,000 | $200,000 | ••• | Jan 2026 |
| Non-Store Retailing | Auckland | $200,000 | $100,000 | ••• | Jan 2026 |
See what they actually sold for. A Bizstats valuation report unlocks exact sale prices, SDE multiples and time-to-sell for retail businesses by ANZSIC sub-category.
Create a Bizstats report →Sample drawn from 2,263 verified retail transactions, updated as new sales are recorded by our network of licensed NZ business brokers.
Retail business sales by NZ region
Retail transaction activity and median time-to-sell mapped across New Zealand's 16 regions. Auckland dominates with 1128 recorded sales, close to half the national total. Switch the metric to compare regional time-to-sell, and click any region for its retail benchmarks.
| Region | Transactions | Median time-to-sell (months) |
|---|---|---|
| Northland | 65 | 4 |
| Auckland | 1128 | 3 |
| Waikato | 147 | 5 |
| Bay of Plenty | 188 | 4 |
| Gisborne | 8 | Insufficient sample |
| Taranaki | 105 | 4 |
| Manawatu | 55 | 5 |
| Hawke's Bay | 24 | 4 |
| Wellington | 71 | 5 |
| Tasman | 16 | 4 |
| Nelson | 70 | 4 |
| Marlborough | 16 | 3.5 |
| West Coast | 6 | Insufficient sample |
| Canterbury | 242 | 4 |
| Otago | 106 | 4 |
| Southland | 16 | 5 |
Put these retail benchmarks to work
Apply Bizstats retail benchmarks to a specific business: your own, a target acquisition or a comparable you're researching. Three free tools, no signup, real insights.
Work out Seller's Discretionary Earnings for a retail business, step by step.
Calculate SDEStart hereApply retail industry multiples to your SDE and get a market value estimate in seconds.
Try for FreeCalculate the return on investment for a retail business purchase.
Calculate ROIRetail business valuation FAQ
Bizstats has recorded 2,263 retail business sales in New Zealand, spanning suburban clothing and giftware stores through to multi-site hardware, pharmacy and specialty food operations. Auckland accounts for approximately 50% of all retail sales, followed by Canterbury, Bay of Plenty and Waikato.
Yes, over the long run. Indexed to 2010 = 100, the median retail sale price reached around 224 by 2025, roughly a 124% increase over fifteen years. Year to year the index is volatile, because each year rests on a modest sample of recorded sales, but the long-run direction is a clear upward trend. Indexed trends are published on this page; the underlying dollar medians by sub-category are in a Bizstats valuation report.
SDE multiples in retail trade vary meaningfully by sub-category. Recurring-revenue retailers (pharmacies, specialty food stores, hardware) tend to trade at the higher end of the retail range, while general retail, gift and giftware stores trade at the lower end. Location, lease terms, customer concentration and the strength of trading history all influence where a specific business lands. The exact SDE multiples for your sub-category are published in a Bizstats valuation report.
Median time-to-sell for retail businesses sits at roughly four months and has been very stable since 2010. The fastest sales are well-located leasehold retail with clean financials in tier-one regions; the slowest tend to be sub-scale stores in declining locations or with complex lease arrangements. A consistently short time-to-sell reflects retail’s broad buyer pool.
Auckland leads by a wide margin with 1128 retail sales in our dataset, followed by Canterbury (242), Bay of Plenty (188) and Waikato (147). The smallest regions, such as Gisborne and the West Coast, record only single-digit transaction counts. Where a region has fewer than 15 recorded sales we don't publish a time-to-sell figure for it, since the sample is too thin to benchmark reliably.
Bizstats publishes market direction freely (indexed trends, sample counts, time-to-sell, regional heatmaps), but the underlying dollar medians and SDE multiples are part of a paid Bizstats valuation report. This split lets buyers, sellers, brokers and accountants benchmark direction.
The dataset is updated monthly, with new transactions constantly flowing in from our network of licensed New Zealand business brokers. Recorded coverage reaches back well over a decade. The indexed trends and charts on this page are benchmarked from 2010.
About this page
The benchmark figures, charts and recent comparables above are drawn from 2,263 verified retail business sales recorded by licensed NZ business brokers. The written analysis is generated from that data and reviewed by the Bizstats team, and is refreshed as new sales are recorded. These are indicative market benchmarks, not a formal valuation. See our Terms of Use.
Benchmarks last updated .
Learn more about business valuation
Guides that explain the metrics behind these retail benchmarks: SDE, earnings multiples, the ANZSIC classification and how market-based valuation works.
Understanding the Role of SDE in Business Valuation
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Market Based Valuation 101
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Understanding ANZSIC
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