Thanks to heightened demand sustained by the pandemic, the self storage sector continued to showcase strong performance through July. On a year-over-year basis, street-rate rents increased 10.4 percent for the average 10×10 non-climate-controlled units, to $127, while climate-controlled units of similar size recorded a 12.4 percent uptick, reaching $145. National street rates also experienced strong growth on a month-over-month basis, increasing 80 basis points for the 10×10 non-climate-controlled and 1.4 percent for climate-controlled units of similar size.

Miami continued to lead the top markets in annual rate performance with 10×10 non-climate-controlled rates increasing by 24 percent and climate-controlled rates by 21.2 percent. The metro also recorded a slight uptick in development activity, up 20 basis points to 11.2 percent month-over-month.

Charleston, where the existing inventory available per person is 11.4 net rentable square feet, almost double the 6.8 national average, continues to exceed expectations. Since January 2021, street-rate rents grew 9.7 percent for the average 10×10 non-climate-controlled to an average of $102 in July, while rates for the same-sized climate-controlled units increased 12.0 percent over the past seven months to $131.

With 10 net rentable square feet of storage space available per capita, Austin is also considerably oversupplied. However, thanks to substantial population growth and the pandemic-driven demand, the metro has seen street rates rebound in 2021. Street-rate rents rose 12.5 percent for the average 10×10 non-climate-controlled and 18.8 percent for the climate-controlled units of similar size, year-over-year in July. Asking rates reached $108 for non-climate-controlled and $139 for climate-controlled units, rates not seen in Austin since 2016.

Nationwide, there were 2,357 self storage properties in various stages of development as of July. This included 582 facilities under construction, 1,293 planned and 482 prospective projects. The new-supply pipeline accounted for 8.5 percent of existing stock, up 20 basis points over the previous month.

New York is leading the nation in construction—the metro’s new-supply pipeline increased from 18 percent in June to 18.3 percent in July. In contrast, Orlando was the only top market to experience a decrease in development activity, down by a minor 10 basis points over June. The metro’s new supply pipeline accounted for 11.4 percent of its existing stock.

Source: Multihousing News

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