PHOTO: 2026 REINZ Awards
From New Zealand’s top-performing residential agents to the country’s best agencies, offices, auctioneers and rising stars, the 2026 REINZ Awards have delivered an interesting snapshot of who is currently leading the industry.
New Zealand’s real estate industry gathered in Auckland this week for the 2026 REINZ Awards for Excellence, with awards spanning residential, rural, commercial, property management, business broking and auctioneering.
And while awards nights inevitably involve plenty of celebration, this year’s results are worth a closer look.
Some of the biggest names in New Zealand real estate feature prominently — Bayleys, Barfoot & Thompson, Harcourts, Ray White, Property Brokers and Colliers — but there are also independent and boutique operators picking up significant honours.
Perhaps the biggest individual winner of the night was Cameron Bailey of Harcourts gold Papanui, who took out the newly introduced Supreme Sales Performance of the Year – All Disciplines award.
THE BATTLE FOR #1: Who Will Be New Zealand’s Top Real Estate Agency?
🏆 Who were New Zealand’s best agencies?
The major agency awards produced four very different winners.
Franchise of the Year: New Zealand Sotheby’s International Realty
Boutique Agency of the Year: Tommy’s Wellington
Medium Agency of the Year: Bayleys Real Estate Ltd
Large Agency of the Year: Barfoot & Thompson Ltd
For Barfoot & Thompson, the Large Agency title adds another major accolade to a night where the Auckland powerhouse featured repeatedly.
The company also won the Community Service Award – Brand, while its Howick operation and people collected several significant awards.
Chris Murdoch – Property Brokers Ashburton Mid Canterbury – Individual Rural Salesperson of the Year (centre) [Photo/Supplied]
🏠 The residential heavyweights
This is arguably the section of most interest to everyday agents.
Edward Pack of Bayleys Ponsonby was named Individual Residential Salesperson of the Year.
Meanwhile, Elliott Street of Iron Bridge Real Estate won the corresponding award for Highest Sales Volume.
The team honours produced another big result for Harcourts.
Cameron Bailey – Harcourts gold Papanui won Residential Sales Team of the Year, while Logan Boersma – Barfoot & Thompson Howick took the Highest Sales Volume team award.
Alice Munro of Bayleys Dunedin claimed both Residential Sales Partnership of the Year and the Highest Sales Volume partnership title.
⭐ One to watch: Rachel Gray
The Residential Rising Star Salesperson of the Year went to Rachel Gray of Property Brokers Whanganui.
Gray summed up an aspect of real estate that can easily get lost among sales numbers and rankings.
“Every client has a story and a journey.”
She said helping people through those journeys was one of the privileges of working in the industry.
🏢 Which offices came out on top?
There were some particularly interesting results at office level.
Small Residential Office: Bayleys Merivale
Small Office – Highest Sales Volume: Property Brokers Ashburton
Medium Residential Office: Bayleys Ponsonby
Medium Office – Highest Sales Volume: Harcourts Timaru
Large Residential Office: Ray White Remuera
Large Office – Highest Sales Volume: Barfoot & Thompson Howick
That spread tells its own story.
There wasn’t one brand sweeping everything.
Bayleys, Property Brokers, Harcourts, Ray White and Barfoot & Thompson all took major residential office honours.
🔨 Who’s the country’s top auctioneer?
Auctioneering remains a fiercely competitive part of the New Zealand real estate industry.
The 2026 winners were:
Australasian Rising Star: Sharni Bichan – Refined Real Estate
NZ Rising Star: Sharni Bichan – Refined Real Estate
NZ Open Division: Jack Sumich – Harcourts
NZ Premier Division: Connor Patton – Bayleys
Bichan’s double Rising Star success is particularly notable.
🌾 Property Brokers and Bayleys dominate rural honours
The rural sector produced another strong showing from some familiar brands.
Chris Murdoch of Property Brokers Ashburton was named Individual Rural Salesperson of the Year.
Tony Rasmussen and Chris Heenan of Bayleys Havelock North won Rural Sales Partnership of the Year.
Ben Turner of Bayleys Christchurch won Rural Sales Team of the Year.
And George Fox of Colliers Rural & Agribusiness was named Rural Rising Star.
Bayleys also took REINZ Rural Region of the Year for its Waikato/Bay of Plenty/Gisborne region.
🏙️ Colliers flexes its commercial muscle
Commercial real estate produced another impressive showing from Colliers.
Greg Goldfinch of Colliers Highbrook was named Commercial and Industrial Salesperson of the Year.
Matt Prentice and Shoneet Chand of Colliers North Shore took Sales Partnership of the Year.
Hayley Preston of Bayleys Auckland Central was named the Commercial & Industrial Rising Star.
The office titles went to Colliers North Shore in Small, Colliers Christchurch/South Island Commercial in Medium and Bayleys Auckland Central Commercial in Large.
💼 And beyond selling houses…
The awards also recognise the huge part of the industry that operates away from residential sales.
Among the winners:
Innovation Award: Bayleys Real Estate
Staff Wellbeing Award: Ray White Best Property Management
Multimedia Marketing Campaign: Kirt Richards – Bayleys Tauranga
Manager of the Year: Steve Maserow – Barfoot & Thompson Howick
Office Administrator of the Year: Kate Murray – Lowe & Co Realty
Personal Assistant of the Year: Jemima Tennekoon – Bayleys
The property management categories were particularly strong for Harcourts, with Jen Neil winning Individual Residential Property Manager of the Year and Hayley Mason and Carina Baxter winning Team/Pod of the Year.
❤️ Real estate isn’t only about GCI
One of the better additions to this year’s awards was greater recognition of community contribution.
Barfoot & Thompson won the Community Service Award – Brand, while Lowe & Co Realty received Community Service Initiative of the Year.
Lowe & Co’s Craig Lowe explained the philosophy simply:
“Our philosophy has always been to use property to lift up our community.”
The company sees reinvesting through its network and business as providing a purpose beyond simply listing and selling houses.
That’s worth recognising in an industry where success is so often reduced to sales numbers.
🔥 THE PROPERTY NOISE VIEW
Awards don’t definitively tell us who New Zealand’s “best” real estate company or agent is.
Different markets, territories, price points and business models make direct comparisons difficult.
But the 2026 REINZ results do reveal where some of the industry’s strength currently sits.
Bayleys appears everywhere — residential, commercial, rural, innovation and auctioneering.
Barfoot & Thompson remains formidable, particularly in Auckland, winning Large Agency of the Year while its Howick operation produced major results.
Harcourts has the night’s supreme salesperson/team performer in Cameron Bailey, as well as strong auctioneering and property-management results.
Ray White Remuera being named Large Residential Office of the Year is another significant result.
And Property Brokers continues to demonstrate that the industry’s biggest successes aren’t confined to Auckland, with major honours in Whanganui, Ashburton and Palmerston North.
REINZ represents almost 17,000 real estate professionals nationally, making recognition at these awards meaningful within the industry.
But perhaps the most interesting takeaway is this:
There isn’t one dominant winner.
Across residential, rural, commercial, property management, auctioneering, community involvement and innovation, the trophies have been spread among a remarkably broad range of brands.
And in one of the toughest property markets New Zealand has experienced for years, perhaps that’s exactly what deserves celebrating.