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The small and medium businesses that survived the pandemic by slashing costs are in a much stronger financial position when they come up for sale.
Sales firm Link Business Brokers said it was seeing profitable, quality businesses on the market this year.
NZ development manager Steven Matthews said some companies that did not adapt to the tough economic conditions will have closed.
But he said those that got their finances in order have become better businesses.
"At that particular time, it wasn't a case of just filing the sales file, it wasn't that easy. So, the best thing they could do is actually focus on costs and actually running a more efficient, cost-effective business," Matthews said.
"Just going line by line in an OpEx (operating expense), right from accountancy fees, right the way down to cleaning, communications and motor vehicle expenses and everything to identify what they could do to save money and run more efficiently."
Matthews said there had been a decrease in the number of businesses going up for sale.
The most important value driver for businesses looking to sell was to maximise profitability, he said.
"That's a combination of driving sales and reducing costs and increasing profitability of the business. Then the other one, the big one is actually identifying, reducing and mitigating risk in the business... It's reducing risk around key staff about supplier contracts and client contracts, all those sort of things."