6 Places To Find Secondhand Campervans For Sale | New Zealand

Last Updated On 24th March 2024 By Lauren | Wild Lovely World

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Are you wanting to buy a campervan for travelling in New Zealand? If so, you’re probably wondering where is the best place to look to find secondhand campervans for sale in New Zealand.

My partner Fiachra and I started searching for a campervan to buy as soon as we arrived in New Zealand. It was quite tricky to know where to look for a campervan in the beginning. However, after gaining some tips from other backpackers and searching around, we found some great ways to find secondhand campervans for sale in New Zealand.

After 2 weeks in Auckland, we bought our first-ever campervan! For 3 years we travelled the whole of New Zealand in our van. We were super happy with our campervan purchase. Having a campervan gave us so much freedom in New Zealand and we loved our little home on wheels!

While searching for our campervan, we discovered the best places to look to buy a campervan in New Zealand. There are several places where you can look for secondhand campervans for sale in New Zealand. In this post, I will share with you the best places to search for your dream campervan to buy in New Zealand. Here begins your journey to find your own perfect home on wheels!

6 Best Places To Find Secondhand Campervans For Sale In New Zealand 🚐🇳🇿

More posts to help you to buy a campervan in New Zealand 🚐 🇳🇿:

• 10 Essential Things You Need To Know Before You Buy A Campervan In New Zealand
• 16 Most Popular Campervan Models For Backpackers To Buy | New Zealand
• Ultimate Cost Guide To Buying A Campervan In New Zealand

Check out my New Zealand Travel Guide for ultimate inspiration! ❤️

1. Trade Me

I love eBay and Gumtree but unfortunately, neither of these websites are popular in New Zealand! The next best thing is Trade Me, which is kind of like a marketplace/notice board for buying and selling, job ads, community notices and much more!

Trade Me has a motors section which is a great place to look for secondhand cars and campervans for sale in New Zealand.

Motors advertised here are generally posted by Kiwis and I wouldn’t say it is very popular for backpackers, who tend to use the Facebook Groups and Backpacker Board below.

Problems With Using Trade Me To Find Secondhand Campervans For Sale In New Zealand

• Not enough campervans for sale: In the beginning, I was using Trade Me a lot to look at campervans to buy in New Zealand. However, after a while, I started using the Facebook groups and notice boards much more. This was because there were so many more backpackers regularly posting new cars and campers for sale on the Facebook groups and Backpacker Board. There were several new ads on those websites every day, so there were always new ones to look at. I found that on Trade Me, there weren’t enough new postings every day so I would end up finding the same listings over and over again.

• Difficult to find what you are looking for: Trade Me’s functionality is also very frustrating! I was using the app on my phone, but also the website. In my opinion, Trade Me’s biggest downfall is its user interface – it is not friendly at all! The filter options are minimal, particularly on the app, which makes it difficult to try to find what you’re looking for.

• More reasonable asking prices elsewhere: Another reason I preferred to look on Facebook and the Backpacker Board is that where more backpackers were buying and selling, the asking prices were a lot more reasonable. Our budget to buy a campervan for travelling in New Zealand was around NZD$5000 (GBP£2500). It was much easier to find campervans within our price range on Facebook and Backpacker Board.

2. Facebook Groups & Marketplace

With so many backpackers buying and selling used cars and campervans in New Zealand, there are so many Facebook groups dedicated to just the sale of secondhand vehicles!

Dedicated Facebook Groups and Pages are an excellent place to look for campervans for sale in New Zealand. In these groups, sellers will post ads and photos of their campervan along with lots of information about the vehicle’s condition and history.

The Best Facebook Groups & Pages To Look For Secondhand Campervans For Sale In New Zealand

• Campervans For Sale In Auckland (Wild Lovely World Group!)
• Campervans For Sale In Christchurch (Wild Lovely World Group!)
• Vans/Campervans Buy Sell & Swap
• Backpacker Cars Buy & Sell New Zealand
• Backpacker Cars New Zealand
• Campervan Buy & Sell New Zealand Backpackers
• Campervans For Sale In New Zealand

You can also just use the Facebook Marketplace, which has handy location/map and filter options.

As mentioned above, there are new ads posted to Facebook every single day so there are always new sellers looking for buyers for their campervans. I think because of the sheer volume of listings, Facebook is the best place to find a secondhand campervan for sale in New Zealand.

You can message sellers instantly through Facebook Messenger which makes it very easy.

We viewed many campervans we found through Facebook Marketplace including the campervan we eventually bought! So I definitely think it is a good place to look to buy a campervan for travelling in New Zealand.

Below you can view and join two Facebook groups for buying/selling campervans in Auckland on the North Island and Christchurch on the South Island. Auckland and Christchurch are New Zealand’s two biggest cities and both have international airports. Thousands of travellers arrive and leave every year from these two locations, so they make a great place to find a campervan for sale.

3. Backpacker Board

Backpacker Board is a great resource for any traveller to New Zealand. It has so much information about how to get a job, how to get around New Zealand, travel guides and a dedicated notice board for the sale of cars and campervans.

I found this website to be pretty good when looking at campervans to buy in New Zealand. Sellers can upload several photos, plus they have to list key details of the vehicle such as WOF, mileage, REGO, transmission and fuel types.

There’s a good variety of different cars and campervans for sale through the Backpacker Board, meeting all budgets and requirements.

Unfortunately, the search filters are very limited. It’s only possible to sort by date added and price. So when looking for campervans and cars to buy on this website, it’s best to check new listings daily and use the ‘sort by date added’ filter option.

The best way to contact sellers is to text or call the number provided on the ads. You could also complete the form which sends an email to them.

I found that there was a good response rate when I was contacting sellers through Backpacker Board.

Related Read: 12 Ways To Find Working Holiday Visa Jobs In New Zealand

4. Hostel & Community Notice Boards

If you’ve just arrived to backpack in New Zealand you’re probably going to be staying in a hostel for a couple of days. There will likely be other backpackers staying in the hostel that are planning to leave New Zealand and want to sell their vehicles. This is especially the case if you’re in a city with lots of international flights like Auckland or Christchurch.

Ask around the hostel and see if anyone is looking for someone to buy their campervan. We managed to view a couple of vehicles while staying at the YHA in Auckland. There were flyers put up on the noticeboards and in the common areas. We also got word of a campervan for sale through speaking with other guests at the hostel.

Another great place to look is on the supermarket noticeboards. At every supermarket (primarily PAK’nSAVE, New World and Countdown) there are community noticeboards.

It’s free to write an ad so lots of people use this as a way to advertise. You could also write an ad to say you are looking for a campervan to buy.

It may seem old school but every time we visit the supermarket we do have a look at the noticeboard. We have seen quite a few ads for campervans this way so it’s definitely worth a try!

5. Car Fairs

While we were searching for a campervan to buy, many people suggested checking out car fairs.

We didn’t end up going to any car fairs as we had enough luck with the other options above. However many people we met did end up buying their campervan at a car fair.

There is now only one major car fair in Auckland you could try your luck. It is the Auckland City Car Fair held every Sunday in Parnell.

• Auckland City Car Fair – Every Sunday 8 am – 1 pm in Parnell.
• Ellerslie Car Fair – Every Sunday 9 am – 12 noon at Ellerslie Racecourse. [PERMANENTLY CLOSED]

6. On The Street

We often see campervans for sale while we are out and about just travelling around New Zealand. People will often put a sign in one of the windows with the price and phone number. So it’s good to keep your eyes peeled! You never know, you might see your dream van for sale on the side of the road!

Found a campervan you want to buy in New Zealand? Read this first!: 10 Essential Things To Know Before You Buy A Campervan In New Zealand

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6 Best Places To Find Secondhand Campervans For Sale In New Zealand – Thanks For Reading!

Thanks so much for reading! I hope this helps you when you are looking to buy a campervan in New Zealand. Happy shopping! 😊 – Lauren x

Planning to buy a campervan in New Zealand and have any questions? Let me know in the comments!

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