Meet the experts guiding your property journey: Vanessa Williams
Get to know Vanessa Williams and her perspective on property market data, regional trends and what’s happening across New Zealand.
Vanessa Williams | General Manager of Customer #
Vanessa Williams is the GM of Customer at realestate.co.nz, New Zealand’s longest-standing property portal, running since 1996, before Google even existed. Today, it connects millions of Kiwis with homes, rentals and commercial spaces every month.
Vanessa is a regular commentator on the New Zealand property market, including as a media spokesperson for The New Zealand Property Report, realestate.co.nz's monthly read on the market, alongside CEO Sarah Wood. She's also the resident property expert on Frances Cook's Making Cents podcast, unpacking how new listings, stock levels and price movements signal where the market is heading, and she's quoted regularly in national and regional coverage, from what's driving regional variation to what vendors need to do differently to sell in a slower market.
Vanessa has spent more than a decade at realestate.co.nz, joining in 2015 as Brand and Commercial Manager when the business was a team of sixteen. She became Head of Marketing in 2016, took on the sales and marketing portfolio in 2018, moved into General Manager of Marketing and Media in 2020, and stepped into her current role, General Manager – Customer, in 2026.
Before realestate.co.nz, she spent several years in marketing roles spanning telecommunications, broadcast media, health insurance, technology and property services, in New Zealand and the United Kingdom, including Gaze Group, a New Zealand property services company, immediately before joining realestate.co.nz. She completed her MBA at the University of Auckland in 2021 while working full-time, and now sits on the boards of IAB New Zealand and AMBAA, the University of Auckland MBA Alumni Association.
Vanessa’s own marketing career underpins her view that good marketing helps people make better property decisions, whether buying, selling or renting, and that it should remain accessible, particularly when New Zealanders are selling one of their biggest assets.
Areas of expertise: #
- Property and rental market data: comments on both The New Zealand Property Report and The New Zealand Rental Report, realestate.co.nz's monthly reads on the sales and rental markets, alternating as spokesperson on each with CEO Sarah Wood, and resident property expert on Frances Cook's Making Cents podcast, translating listings, stock and price movements into what they mean for buyers, sellers and renters.
- Regional market variation: where the national picture and the regional one diverge, calling out fast-moving regions like Gisborne, Hawke's Bay and Northland against a patchier picture elsewhere, drawn from realestate.co.nz's region-by-region listings data.
- Vendor pricing and selling strategy: practical guidance for sellers on pricing to the current market rather than holding out for past prices, grounded in what realestate.co.nz is actually seeing happen with live listings (The New Zealand Property Report, interest.co.nz, Bay of Plenty Business News).
- The role of marketing in property decisions: why clear, accessible marketing helps people make better property decisions, drawn from more than a decade as a working marketer, including a property-sector role immediately before joining realestate.co.nz, and her seat on the IAB New Zealand board.
Why trusted expertise matters #
Property decisions are some of the biggest New Zealanders make, and understanding the market isn’t always straightforward. There’s no shortage of data, opinions, and headlines, but knowing what they mean for you is what really matters.
At realestate.co.nz, our content combines property and audience data, insights from across the real estate industry and the experience of people who understand the market. We turn that knowledge into clear, useful information to help New Zealanders better understand property and make informed decisions.
- Clarity in a complex market: We translate complex data into straightforward analysis that makes sense.
- Insights from data: Our content is built on a foundation of comprehensive and timely property information in New Zealand.
- A human-first approach: We focus on what matters to you, helping you discover the life you want to live, not just a new postcode.