Quarterly Results – September 2025 quarter
The September 2025 quarter reflected ongoing challenges, with overall spend and transactions both down 6% year-on-year.
The value of events shone through. 83% of participating businesses that responded to our survey said that our signature Restaurant Month event was “successful for their business.” We were proud to be an Official Supporter of New Zealand Fashion Week, which delivered a boost to spend and added to the vibrancy here. The New Zealand International Film Festival also achieved similar results.
Amid numerous headwinds, the city centre continues to shine as a destination for world-class dining and hospitality. Major milestones, from award-winning restaurants to hotel anniversaries, reinforce its reputation, while significant investments such as Quattro Group’s mid-town redevelopment signal confidence in the future. Leasing trends reflect a “flight-to-quality” dynamic, with prime-grade office vacancy falling even as overall vacancy rises, and demand for luxury retail remaining strong despite broader economic softness.
Overall Spend: City centre performance soft amid gradual confidence gains nationwide
Source: Marketview. Not for Reproduction.
The September 2025 quarter was tough for the city centre. Spend was -6% compared to the September 2024 quarter, matching a -6% drop in transactions. Despite fewer purchases, the average transaction value edged up by +0.4%, suggesting slightly higher spend per visit.
Source: Marketview, Not for Reproduction.
National economic trends across the quarter:
ANZ Business Outlook for July to September shows business confidence across the country lifted from 48% in July to 50% in August and September.
ANZ-Roy Morgan Consumer Confidence during the quarter fell from 94.7 in July to 92 in August before lifting to 94.6 in September. Buying intentions were negative at -8%, -12% and -11%, pointing to subdued retail demand.
Over the past 12 months, city centre spend is -6% and transactions -4%, a steeper decline than competitors and the national average.
Source: Marketview. Not for Reproduction.
Who's spending and on what?
In the September 2025 quarter, Auckland City residents remained the largest contributors to city centre spending at 39%. International visitors accounted for 20%, unchanged from the previous quarter but up from 18% in September 2024. International spend on the food retailing sector was +13% in the September 2025 quarter, compared to the same period last year.
Source: Marketview. Not for Reproduction.
In the September 2025 quarter, our world-class Cafes and Restaurants offering captured the lion’s share of both international and domestic spend, with Restaurant Month popular in the month of August.
Restaurant Month celebrated 15 years, appetite for events surged across the city centre
Sources: Post-event participant survey, Marketview. Not for Reproduction.
A highlight for the quarter was Heart of the City’s signature Restaurant Month event. It hit a milestone 15 years in the city centre, with over 100 special menus and events throughout August.
From hands-on masa-making classes to immersive live-action mysteries, the appetite for this year’s 15 unique events was clear. With event capacity doubled from Restaurant Month 2024, ticket sales surpassed last year’s entire programme in just two weeks. Momentum continued throughout the campaign, with 86% of all tickets sold.
Spend for Restaurant Month participants was -2% compared to Restaurant Month 2024, and the number of transactions -4%. Non-participants experienced a larger drop in spend, -8%, indicating the value Restaurant Month can offer businesses, even in a challenging economic environment. Over Restaurant Month 2025, the average transaction value was $98.89, +2% than the programme in 2024.
Restaurant Month 2025 attracted strong out-of-town and international support, with domestic spend +11% and international +7% compared to 2024.
Businesses that took part in Restaurant Month 2025 recognised its value, with 83% of participating restaurants that responded to our survey saying the programme was “successful for their business.” One restaurant said:
“This year’s Restaurant Month was so far the most successful one…1400+ booked and dozens of walk-ins.”
Events like Restaurant Month play a vital role in creating a vibrant and successful city centre. Our survey shows that 84% of HOTC subscribers and 72% of Aucklanders who responded consider these events important. Dining remains the most frequently mentioned reason for leisure or entertainment trips to the city centre among both groups. Nearly half of HOTC subscriber visits (44%) are primarily for dining out.
The Restaurant Month website had 355,000 visits, +14% year-on-year and page views of 464,000, +15% year-on-year.
This year, we refreshed our Restaurant Month campaign, conceptualised by Motion Sickness. It celebrated the skill and artistry of the city centre’s restaurant culture through strikingly simple photography and a sharp film featuring Ahi’s Chef Mike Shatura. The campaign’s creativity was recognised internationally, earning LLBonline’s ‘Work of the Week’ for Australia/New Zealand, a global platform with 500,000 monthly visitors.
‘The campaign’s hero line, Don’t Try This At Home, is delivered with just the right amount of edge...for those of us who have left a trail of failed kitchen experiments in their wake, it’s an incredibly compelling argument,’ wrote LBB’s Tess Connery-Britten.
NZIFF opening night: queues down Queen Street brought a boost to spend and NZ Fashion Week 2025 didn’t just serve looks, it sparked spending
Sources: HOTC foot traffic. Marketview. Not for Reproduction. *STLW = Same Time Last Week
The New Zealand International Film Festival reported that “Auckland Audiences were up nearly 40%, and we packed out The Civic several times over. We saw queues from the box office down Queen Street…and a general good buzz around town.” Around 2000 people attended the opening night of the NZIFF at The Civic. Our foot traffic data for the evening around The Civic area was +11% between 4pm – midnight compared to the same time the previous week, and +3% across all cameras. Overall spend was +9% compared to the same time the previous week.
The welcome return of New Zealand Fashion Week (Kahuria) to the city centre brought energy and economic impact, and we were proud to be an Official Supporter of this year’s programme.
Marketview data showed that compared to the previous week spend was:
- +11.6% on Queen Street
- +7.3% in the overall downtown precinct
The apparel and hospitality sectors in the downtown area saw particular boosts during NZFW; +19.6% on Wednesday, and +32% on Friday, compared to the same time the previous week.
Foot Traffic
Source: HOTC Pedestrian Counts. Not for Reproduction.
Foot traffic for the 12-month period ending September 2025 was -8% compared to the 12-month period ending September 2024. In the latest quarter, foot traffic was +1% versus the September 2024 quarter. The month of September performed especially well, at +6% compared to the same month in 2024.
Source: HOTC Pedestrian Counts.
Office Leasing News
Colliers Auckland CBD Office Essentials report for 2H 2025 revealed that overall vacancy rose to 14.6% in June, up from 13.9% in December. The report highlighted the continued ‘flight-to-quality’ trend dominating the office leasing sector as a key factor.
Prime-grade vacancy fell to 8.4%, down from 9.8% in December, reinforcing this preference for higher-quality spaces.
Source: Colliers, Auckland CBD Office Essentials report for 2H 2025
In the September 2025 quarter, Australia’s Quattro Group purchased four interconnected office buildings in Auckland’s city centre: 22, 24 and 26 Durham Street West and 19 Victoria Street West for $104 million.
Colliers’ Richard Kirke, who brokered the sale with Shoneet Chand, told the New Zealand Herald the deal is significant because Quattro plans a major investment to gentrify these mid-town buildings, located opposite the new Te Waihorotiu Station.
‘You’re starting to see the benefit of the City Rail Link investment in Auckland. That is going to reinvigorate the city. That part of town has not had a lot of investment in the last decade, so this is an extremely important sale for the city,’ said Kirke.
This development signals growing confidence in the city centre’s mid-town precinct and the transformative potential impact of the City Rail Link.
Retail Leasing News
Source: Colliers, Auckland Retail Essentials report for 2H 2025
The weak economy, which has cast a long shadow over the quarter, was reflected in Collier’s Auckland Retail Essentials report for 2H 2025. The report noted that Auckland CBD’s strip retail sector vacancies reached 11% in June, compared to 10% a year earlier. Despite this, demand within the city centre’s luxury and international brands precinct remains high, as well as the large retail format sector.
Business News: Celebrating success: top awards, major milestones, and an exciting reopening
At the Cuisine Good Food Awards, there were two major wins and 19 eateries earning coveted hats. Hotel Restaurant of the Year went to Metita at The Grand by SkyCity and Kenji Yoshitshuka of Advieh took home Pastry Chef of the Year. Out of 95 restaurants recognised with hats nationwide, Auckland’s city centre represents 20% of recipients, and the highest density of top restaurants in the country, with a vibrant mix of beloved favourites and rising stars dishing up cuisines from around the world. It’s a true testament not only to the depth of talent, but the breadth of diversity on offer here. Congratulations to all of our winners.
More recently, it was announced that the Michelin Guide is coming to New Zealand. We can’t wait for the inaugural list to be unveiled in 2026. Here’s a great interview with Ben Bayly, Executive Chef at Ahi and New Zealand Food Story Host about the announcement.
Our hotels have celebrated major milestones, too.
Park Hyatt marked its fifth birthday. General Manager Brett Sweetman said of the milestone:
“Park Hyatt Auckland was built with the purpose of attracting both tourists and Aucklanders to the heart of the city. Over the past five years, we are proud to have played a role in bringing people into the CBD, creating memorable experiences and contributing to the vibrancy of Auckland’s waterfront. We remain committed to supporting the city’s growth as a world-class destination for locals and visitors alike.”
Although they fall slightly outside of our reporting period, Hotel Britomart received a Michelin Key for exceptional hospitality, one of just three hotels and 19 properties across New Zealand to receive the prestigious award.
Hotel DeBrett celebrated its 100th year alongside the reopening of the iconic city centre eatery Vivace in this stunning Art Deco space. It feels like the perfect pairing of heritage and hospitality. A fabulous article capturing a century of style, stories and High Street glamour can be read here.
Collectively, these achievements reinforce the city centre’s national and international reputation as a destination for world-class dining and hospitality experiences. Congratulations to all!
Hotels were completely full for Metallica on Wednesday, 19 November, with Auckland hosting 57,000 visitors. 40,000 of them heading to Metallica’s sold-out Eden Park show, and ~4,000 gathered at the Aotea Centre for the World Indigenous Peoples’ Conference on Education, the largest academic conference ever held in New Zealand. This is great news and reinforces our own data, which consistently shows that major events drive more people into the city centre.
It also highlights the importance of smart, long-term investment in events. While the one-off $70 million cash injection for tourism and events announced during the September quarter is a welcome step, a sustainable funding solution is still needed to ensure a strong pipeline and provide certainty for the sector. Our Chief Executive, Viv Beck, discussed the announcement in an interview with Newstalk ZB.
Looking ahead: Business confidence is trending up, Faradays is coming to Queen Street
Colliers’ November 2025 New Zealand Research Report highlights growing optimism among commercial property investors, driving increased enquiries and market activity. The report also cites October’s ANZ Business Outlook Survey, where business confidence surged from 50 to 58.
In a strong vote of confidence for the city centre, Faradays has announced it’s coming to 131 Queen Street. The luxury department store will span 3000 square metres across three levels, and transformed into a destination for high-end retail, immersive experiences, and valet parking by mid-2026.
Faradays chief executive Edward von Dadelszen has signed a 12-year lease on the building. In an interview with the New Zealand Herald, he said:
“This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to offer something truly special to New Zealanders and visitors alike. Not just a store, but a destination. A place to discover, connect, and be inspired for generations to come We’re thrilled to be creating something extraordinary – a department store reimagined from the ground up, to set a new standard for retail in New Zealand.”
The space will be transformed by Fearon Hay Architects. In the same article, co-founder Jeff Fearon said he was eager to play a role in “the re-establishment of the Queen Street’s central city retail identity.”
“131 Queen St sits in the context of the continued establishment of global brands, and the pending sea-change expected from the imminent opening of new central city stations and the connectivity of rail. These elements combine to make this project an incredibly exciting one,” says Fearon.
We’re excited to support the development as it unfolds.
