Cheat sheet: What you need to know about Ikea's first NZ store

Friday, 2 June 2023

Swedish furniture giant Ikea is finally ready to start building at Auckland’s Sylvia Park. An artist’s impression of the store, which will cover 34,000m².

It’s been a long time coming but Swedish furniture giant Ikea has finally broken ground at Auckland’s Sylvia Park, the site of its first New Zealand store.

Here’s what you need to know:

When will the store open?

At Friday’s ground-breaking ceremony, Ikea New Zealand chief executive Mirja Viinanen said the store was expected to open at the end of 2025.

Ikea madness has building in New Zealand for almost three years now. This clip of the announcement that Ikea is committed to New Zealand is from 2021.

If you’ve been following the Ikea-is-coming-to-New Zealand saga, you might take that with a grain of salt.

The company has been waiting to begin work since 2019 and initially indicated an opening date of late 2024. Unfortunately for Ikea and fans of Scandinavian style, Covid-19 had other plans.

Fingers crossed for smooth sailing from here on out.

So, when it does eventually open, how big is it going to be?

With 34,000m² to cover, you might need a little lie down.

Similar to other Ikea stores, the three-storey Auckland store will cover 34,000m².

That’s some serious floorspace. How will they fill it?

The store will be home to at least two full-size houses decked out in more Ikea kit than you can shake a hairpin table leg at.

It will also have a restaurant and food market serving Ikea’s popular Swedish meatballs.

Sounds great for Auckland shoppers but what about the rest of us?

Ikea isn’t giving much away on plans for any other New Zealand stores, but there has been talk of smaller-format stores in other locations.

The lack of firm plans for physical stores doesn’t mean the rest of the country will miss out, however. A local website will peddle Ikea products to the masses, and is expected to draw in millions of shoppers each year.