They say you can find gold at the end of a rainbow, and that was exactly the case for the buyers of the Rainbow Beach Shopping Centre, which sold for $4.43 million.
The dominant centre in one of Australia’s most popular tourist destinations, it sold to a private Queensland investor following a tightly contested auction with six registered bidders at a yield of 7.32 per cent.
The convenience based shopping centre is anchored by a high-performing IGA supermarket, which has operated at the centre for 16 years, and has recently renewed for a further five years to 2027.
The centre was sold by Ray White Commercial agents Lachlan O’Keeffe, Michael Feltoe, Paul Butler, and David Brinkley.
Mr O’Keeffe said despite the recent economic volatility, the centre commanded strong interest.
“Most people who have been to Fraser Island would know this centre as the last inbound stop of the journey,” he said.
“Considering the regional location, we were pleasantly surprised with how well the centre was known by private investors all across Australia.”
Mr Feltoe said the property fielded enquiries from all corners of Australia.
“The primary draw card was the long-term track record of the IGA supermarket anchor and the bright future Rainbow Beach has demonstrated with its post-covid bounce back,” he said.
“Both of these factors were the primary draw cards which lead to the high volume of 254 enquiries”.
Rainbow Beach Shopping Centre is located on a 2,369sqm land parcel with three street frontage facing the only road into Rainbow Beach.
The town – which is three hours drive North of Brisbane – is a tourism hotspot both in its own right, and as the gateway to Fraser Island, generating significant weekend traffic throughout the year.
“Although the centre did feel the impacts of the initial Covid shutdowns, it has performed exceptionally in the last 18 months with intrastate and interstate demand higher than ever, with the IGA especially being a strong performer” Mr Butler said.
