Business Rules
From relisting a property to changing suburbs
Relisting a property
What is a "relist"?
A "relist" is when a property that has already been listed on Trade Me is withdrawn and then listed again. To qualify as a relist, the property must be published again within 45 days of the previous listing's withdrawal date. If published after this window, it will be treated as a brand-new listing.
When a listing is relisted within 45 days, it retains its original start date. All previous metrics — search views, listing views, watchlisters, and enquiries — will be lost.
It is against our terms and conditions to create a new listing to renew the start date within the 45-day window. This artificially elevates the property and is misleading to customers and unfair to competitors.
Packages in the Residential for Sale and New Homes categories are designed to last for the "lifetime" of a listing, with weekly boosts to keep it fresh in search results.
If the previous listing had a package
The relist will automatically start as a Base listing at no extra charge. In all other categories, a Feature will be applied. You will also be eligible for a 50% discount on the original package if in the Residential for Sale & New Homes category.
If the previous listing didn't have a package
The relisted property will start as a base listing. You can still add a package when creating the relist. Either directly through the Trade Me site or using the Relist with Edits function through your CRM. You can always add a Package later by editing the listing or contacting our Customer Experience team at propertyagents@trademe.co.nz.
These rules also apply to customers on a Partner Agreement.
Using a CRM?
Trade Me has endpoints for your CRM to action relists within the business rules. If you're unsure how to apply a package or relist correctly, contact your CRM provider's support team and reference this link.
Changing your listing's category
If you've listed a property in the wrong category, we can help.
Within 12 hours of the listing starting
For Residential for Sale and New Homes category listings, withdraw the incorrect listing and create a new one in the right category. Fees for the withdrawn listing will be automatically waived within this 12-hour window. If you are unsure or it's outside the 12-hour window, contact propertyagents@trademe.co.nz for advice.
In other categories
Email our Customer Support team with the old and new ten-digit Trade Me Listing ID. We'll provide options once assessed.
Changing listing Address
Accuracy is key! 📍 A listing's location should always reflect its real-life position.
Important: After a set timeframe, you can no longer edit the listing location. Street address fields will lock after 7 days. Suburbs will lock after 14 days.
The listing address will become locked after the above timeframes. You have to contact our Customer Support team to make this change.
If you are listing through a CRM, you can find a full list of all suburbs available on Trade Me right here - https://developer.trademe.co.nz/api-reference/catalogue-methods/retrieve-property-jobs-and-services-suburbs
Editing Listing Details
Descriptions:
To update the listing description, you need to ensure two things:
-
Ensure the listing description is no more than 5200 characters (Each line break equals 2 characters).
-
Only plain text is used.
Headings:
The listing title field has a limit of 50 characters.
Videos and 3D Tours
To get your Video or 3D Tour working correctly, it needs to follow one of these formats:
YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=[UNIQUE KEY]
or
Matterport:
https://my.matterport.com/webgl_player/#model=[UNIQUE KEY]
Tip: [UNIQUE KEY] is the string of letters and numbers at the very end of your link (e.g., 7fghks).
You should also make sure your content is publicly shareable!
Check out the full list of available providers on the link below.
https://help.trademe.co.nz/hc/en-us/articles/4408625673101-Add-a-video-or-3D-tour#top
Open Homes
If your Open Home isn't showing, please try these troubleshooting steps:
1. Check your CRM: Confirm the Open Home is active in your system and try resending the listing data to Trade Me.
2. Look for Error Messages: Check your CRM's sync log. A single error message can stop all updates—including Open Home times—from reaching us.
Pro-Tip: You can always log in to Trade Me and add Open Homes manually at any time if you need a quick fix! Don't forget! Open homes will only display for listings in Residential for Sale and New Homes 🏠
Photos
To ensure your photos upload correctly, they just need to meet these simple requirements:
-
Limit: Maximum of 50 photos.
-
Size: Up to 5MB per file.
-
Dimensions: At least 500px on any one side.
-
Format: PNG, JPG, BMP, or GIF.
Broken Photos? Photos may appear broken if they have been in your CRM for too long. You will need to completely remove them and re-upload.
Blurry Photos? Photos are often blurry when a CRM has reduced the file size to upload to Trade Me. ⚠️ Remember: File size for images on Trade Me is up to 5MB per file.
If your file is larger, some CRMs will automatically compress the file to complete the upload. Often, they will reduce the file to far below 5MB to ensure the upload works. But, this can leave you with blurry images. It's best to confirm the file is below 5MB before you upload it to the CRM.
School Zones
Our school data comes directly from the government’s Education Counts website.
Could you please check if the details on your listing match the official record there?
You can verify it here: https://www.educationcounts.govt.nz/find-school
If school zones are missing, our support team will need to investigate this further to see why those schools aren't appearing correctly.
Requesting a new suburb
If a suburb you want to list in isn't available on Trade Me, you can request it be created by our Customer Support team. Requests are cross-checked against the NZ Post website and Google Maps before a new suburb is created.
Once created, your feed provider will also need an update from their end — Trade Me Property sends them a newly created suburbs update at the beginning of each month.
Moving listings between agencies
If an agency is purchased by another, inventory will need to be listed through the relevant account to ensure all editing ability and branding sit with the correct company. To start this process, please contact our Customer Experience team at propertyagents@trademe.co.nz for the next steps.
Important points to remember:
-
All new listings will be backdated to match the original publish date
-
All previous listing metrics (search views, listing views, watchlisters, enquiries) will be lost
-
This process does not apply to agents moving between different brands
Change of Ownership
If your NZBN or Legal Entity details are changing, or you have sold your business, please let us know so we can update your data on our end.
