Auckland: the ‘raw diamond’ for IKEA New Zealand

IKEA Sylvia Park in Auckland is the furthest store in the world from the brand’s home country, Sweden, but that distance brings opportunity.

The home furnishing giant is now thought of as ‘part of the furniture’ in New Zealanders’ daily lives, nearly one year after IKEA Sylvia Park opened its doors in Mt Wellington in December 2025. The much-anticipated opening saw 569,417 visitors head instore between 4 December 2025 and 3 January 2026.

IKEA’s decision to invest in New Zealand came after assessing financial and commercial opportunities, as well as operational and supply-chain logistics. Auckland is more than 2000km away from Sydney, where IKEA has three large-format stores.

Johanna Cederlöf, Market Manager for IKEA New Zealand, says that Auckland as a location proposition was, “very interesting from both financial and scalability perspectives”.

“It's a little bit like a raw diamond. Land prices are very competitive in Auckland compared with other similar-sized cities globally and there’s opportunity to collaborate with the city to develop infrastructure.”

Cederlöf has worked for IKEA since 2011. Originally from Finland, she was IKEA’s first hire for New Zealand, charged with managing the brand’s entry into the New Zealand market. Today, she’s responsible for running the IKEA Sylvia Park store and ensuring its products are accessible to New Zealanders through online shopping and 29 pick-up points across the country.  

Auckland the natural location choice in New Zealand

Cederlöf says Auckland was the natural location choice in New Zealand. Everything needed to make sense financially, but it was also a “little bit of a love decision”.

“Not only is it New Zealand’s largest city, it’s also the largest growing city. Auckland’s connectivity to ports, airports, and road infrastructure and its ability to be able to serve the whole country were super appealing to us. We chose the location very carefully so that we could be reachable through public transport networks, allowing customers to travel as sustainably as possible.

“There was a lot at stake, and it might have been easier to build another store in Sweden or in the middle of Europe. However, you need to put your heart in it and have the correct people in the community who want you as an investor to enter into the country. Auckland gave us a great welcome, and we've been blessed with super-good collaboration,” Cederlöf says.

Andrew Carpenter, Principal Advisor – Investor Relations in Auckland Council's Economic Development Office, says Aucklanders have welcomed IKEA with open arms and that the region is a compelling proposition for international investment. “New Zealand is a wealthy OECD country and we’re politically stable, with relatively strong consumer demand, and a growing population.”

New territory brings new opportunities

Cederlöf says entering a new country provides an opportunity to trial new projects.

Ahead of the Sylvia Park store opening, IKEA visited more than 500 homes in New Zealand to understand local life-at-home expectations and translate those learnings into its store and online presentation.

“We wanted to develop and build a new, very conceptualised type of building. What gave us a good base in Auckland is that New Zealanders are extremely digital. We were able to enter the market with a full digital concept, introducing new digital tools for our customers, and automatisation for our operations.”

Complex build wins property award

In June, IKEA Sylvia Park was named the winner of the Yardi Retail Property Award at the Property Council New Zealand Rider Levett Bucknall Property Industry Awards.

Described as a bespoke, highly complex, multi-level build, the 52,684sqm store brings together showroom, marketplace, and food and beverage spaces, undercroft parking (ground-level parking located directly underneath a building’s footprint), automation and extensive supporting infrastructure across a 33,000sqm site. The project included a mezzanine showroom and significant external works, including roading, ramps, parking zones and supporting services.

IKEA NZ has helped to create a furniture-shopping precinct

IKEA Sylvia Park is accessible by a pedestrian walkway from the nearby Sylvia Park shopping centre. Its proximity to the Sylvia Park train station makes it easily accessible by train across greater Auckland with the City Rail Link (CRL) network.

Before the CRL opened in mid-September 2026, Sylvia Park shopping centre owner Kiwi Property revealed in a May 2026 market update that the opening of the pedestrian link had boosted foot traffic to the shopping centre, particularly its upper level.

Radio New Zealand reported in August that Kiwi Property said sales were up across the shopping centre's furniture retailers. Rather than [IKEA] drawing customers away from the Sylvia Park area's other furniture stores, its presence helped create a furniture-precinct destination for shoppers. At Sylvia Park Lifestyle, a big box-retail zone across the road from IKEA, furniture sales were up more than 30% in June 2026 compared with June 2025.

Cederlöf says IKEA is “so excited” to be in New Zealand. “There's still so much to learn about life at home for the diverse people here in Auckland, and so much more potential. We want to learn about their needs, dreams and frustrations so that we can create a better, everyday life at home for people here in Auckland, and the whole of Aotearoa New Zealand.”

ikea.com/nz