Eighteen months without a normal office, but Kingscliff kept moving

For most principals, taking ownership of a real estate business is difficult enough without having the workplace effectively disappear around them.

That was the position facing LJ Hooker Kingscliff principal Rhiannon Bald as a long-planned transition in ownership collided with one of the most disruptive periods in the office's history.

Bald had spent a decade inside the Kingscliff business before stepping into ownership, having started as a receptionist in 2015 and worked across sales support, business development, accounts and management. LJ Hooker announced the succession in July last year, with Bald and Vanessa Rhodes taking over from long-time operator Paul McMahon.

But the transition came with an extraordinary complication.

Months earlier, the Kingscliff office had been heavily damaged during Cyclone Alfred. LJ Hooker's own announcement at the time said the building had lost its second storey, forcing the business to operate from what remained of the premises while extensive renovations were planned.

The rebuild would ultimately stretch across roughly 18 months.

During that period, the agency continued operating, with staff split between available space and temporary premises while the office was reconstructed. Computers, office equipment and years of material had been lost in the damage, but the agency's sales, property management and client responsibilities did not disappear with the building.

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That is arguably the more significant part of the Kingscliff story.

Natural disasters generate immediate attention when roofs come off and buildings are damaged. For businesses, however, the harder test often comes afterwards, when the photographs have stopped circulating but clients still need calls returned, rental properties still need managing and settlements still need progressing.

Today, LJ Hooker Kingscliff is again operating from its Marine Parade premises, with Bald listed as the business's principal and licensee in charge.

For a principal whose path through the agency began at reception more than a decade ago, the finished office represents more than a renovation.

It is the physical end point of an unusually complicated succession: a business changed hands, its workplace was badly damaged, its team was displaced and the agency kept servicing the market throughout.

The doors are open again. The business, importantly, never really stopped.