About NZ Realtors Network

NZ Realtors is headed by experts in their field, with the input of Directors who are actively working as owner operators in their respective agencies.

Donna Peffers is General Manager and acts as one of the single points of contact for key clients. She brings over a decade of industry and management experience to the network, including from roles with the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand (REINZ) and The Rent Shop Ltd.

Donna regularly acts on behalf of clients to see properties through the listing process, acting as a conduit for the network’s 2,800 strong sales team. This streamlined system delivers time savings, ensures listings details are correct and consistent across all providers, and is all around easier for clients.

General Manager
Donna Peffers
NZ Realtors Network Ltd
021 505 485
c/- Barfoot & Thompson,
34 Shortland St,
Auckland 1010
PO Box 4078,
Shortland St,
Auckland 1140

Local experts, national connections

We provide access to more than 2,950 salespeople and 530 property managers and assistants across over 200 offices spanning New Zealand.

We cover all the major areas of real estate including residential, lifestyle, rural, commercial, business, rentals and property management. Our members are experts in their local markets and are often the dominant brand in some of the country’s most lucrative regions. With the NZ Realtors Network, you benefit from the skills of local real estate experts AND their national connections.

Better, simpler and wiser

Better than a national chain

Through a comprehensive network of market-leading real estate companies, we currently hold around 24% of national market share, providing access to more of the New Zealand real estate market than most of the national chains.

Our members are local experts with established reputations. They’ve grown in tandem with their respective communities and know what works best, creating tailored marketing plans that are in-tune with the local market.

Referrals also flow freely and swiftly and through this extensive network, helping match people with properties more quickly.

Simpler sales and acquisitions

Whether it is several properties or hundreds, we manage and coordinate your transactions through a single point of contact, while still drawing on the localised capabilities and referral power of the entire network.

Network fees can be negotiated upfront, and by working with market-leading suppliers, our clients benefit directly from highly competitive marketing and service rates.

Wiser with complex transactions

NZ Realtors brings together the skill and nous of some of the country’s most astute real estate managers as well as the collective benefit of their truly well-established processes, policies and relationships.

We have a proven track record in managing sensitive transactions. We also recognise that potentially contentious sales can attract public and media attention, and take every step to protect clients’ interests throughout the sales process.

Our members work to best practice and are bound by their established ethical, codes of practice and the high expectations of their colleagues in the network.

With an unrivalled team founded on expertise, reputation and national scale, NZ Realtors is the better, simpler and wiser option for your property transaction.

NZ Realtors history

NZ Realtors was founded in 1995 by the heads of four multi-branch independent agencies: Tim Mordaunt of Property Brokers, Colin Richardson of Richardson Real Estate, Richard Cashmore of Eves Realty Group, and Neville Hunt of Lodge Real Estate.

What started as an informal discussion among friends and former colleagues, Tim and Colin, quickly established into a bi-annual gathering of professionals sharing resources, insights and advice. Topics ranged from training to pay structures and from HR to marketing.

Offering a growing knowledge base and opportunity for independent operators to seek support, the network grew through invitations to other leadings companies including Barfoot & Thompson, McDonald Real Estate and others.

With such strength in its membership, the business opportunities through referrals became a natural progression for the network. A deliberately non-bureaucratic approach and freedom from of competition and politics between agencies allow referrals to flow fast and freely between members. Today, NZ Realtors is one of New Zealand’s largest referral networks.

Two decades on and the network is still growing, with the appointment of a General Manager in 2012 and through national sales projects such as that for Housing New Zealand’s FirstHome scheme. A six-strong board, still representative of the country’s leading independent agencies, continues to maintain the founding principles of the network – bound by friendship, trust and the desire to do better business in real estate.

Our leadership

NZ Realtors is headed by experts in their field, with the input of Directors who are actively working in their respective agencies. Donna Peffers is General Manager and acts as one of the single points of contact for key clients.

Our Chairperson is Emma Ashworth, (Director of Richardson’s Real Estate). She is joined by five other Directors who are Peter Thompson (Managing Director of Auckland’s largest and longest standing real estate agency Barfoot & Thompson), Jeremy O’Rourke (Managing Director of the Lodge group), Nicki Cruickshank (Director of Tommy’s Real Estate Wellington), Daniel McDonald (Managing Director of McDonald Real Estate and Guy Mordaunt (Managing Director of Property Brokers).

Proven expertise

Potential members

NZ Realtors members are an open and forward thinking network looking to collaborate with other strong, independent real estate firms.

Through the network, members benefit from being part of one of the country’s largest real estate referral networks and can also draw on the knowledge, skills and processes of fellow member organisations.

Membership parameters may include: market share, geographical territory, sectors covered, team size and composition, company ownership, financial performance, marketing activities, training undertaken, and community involvement.

Membership is only offered to real estate companies who meet our membership parameters and if our Board of Directors determines the company will benefit from being a member and can add value to the network.

Media commentary

NZ Realtors can provide or facilitate expert media commentary on property market matters, whether national or regional, or related to a specific sector.

Headquartered in Auckland, we can also put media in contact with established agencies in other regions of New Zealand. Our members are often the market-share leaders and most established brands in their region, positioning them well to provide expert commentary on the local market.

NZ REALTORS CASE STUDIES

A track record of success – supporting Housing New Zealand’s (now Kāinga Ora) FirstHome scheme and NZ Defence Force's Regular Forces.


Changing demand for social housing meant there was an oversupply of some types of homes, particularly in the country’s regions, and a selection of these affordable properties were made available for sale to eligible first home buyers through Housing New Zealand’s (now Kāinga Ora) FirstHome scheme.

Rural Sales Consultant


Claude Shepherd
Rural Sales Consultant, Barfoot & Thompson, Kerikeri
  • #1 Individual Salesperson, Barfoot & Thompson, Northland Region, to end March 2024
  • Top Salesperson, Barfoot & Thompson, Kerikeri Branch, to end March 2024

With 18 years experience in rural real estate sales and more than 23 years dairy farming, Claude is the natural choice for vendors and purchasers who want an agent who understands them and their business, and knows the true value of the properties he is selling.

Commercial Leasing and Sales


Dean Abraham
Commercial Leasing & Sales, Lodge Real Estate, Hamilton
  • #1 Commercial Agent, Lodge Real Estate, 2010-15, 2022
  • $175 million in commercial and industrial sales

Over the past sixteen years, Dean has built a solid reputation as one of Hamilton’s leading commercial real estate agents, including seven years as Lodge Real Estate’s top commercial leasing and sales consultant.

It remains a good time to be a commercial property specialist in Hamilton as the nation’s business community continues to look outside Auckland for cheaper land and offices.

Property Management


Samantha Buys
Property Manager, Summit Property Management Ltd
  • Area Manager Nelson
  • Approx. $2.3 million in annual rent across nearly 100 properties

Summit Property Management covers the top of the South Island, with six offices from Motueka to Blenheim, and manages over 2,000 properties. Samantha is one of four Area Managers and 24 Property Managers.

Samantha manages a team of seven and manages a portfolio of just under 100 properties herself, with a combined rental income of over $2.3 million per annum.  Her Nelson team covers from Rai Valley to Tahunanui Hills through to Bishopdale, and with the largest team in Summit Property Management they manage around 750 properties collectively.