Self-Storage Innovations, Statistics, and Changes in 2017
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The storage industry is growing at an unimagainable rate with some storage giants like Self Storage, Public Storage, and Cube Smart emerging as some of the leaders. Self-storage is changing in the U.S. and around the world. The more people accumulate items, the more storage space becomes a necessity. The figure below, created by Reis includes one of the most common types of storage units, a 10′ by 10′, and shows how rent prices have consistently grown since 2011.
Industry Statistics
According to Self-Storage Association Statistic Brain, 65% of Americans who rent a self-storage unit have a garage at their home, and 33% have basements. Self-storage companies have paid over $3.5 billion in local property taxes. And, over 170,000 employees work at self-storage companies. Our point is that self-storage establishments are alive and well in the U.S. because Americans have plenty of “stuff” to store.
Facility Modernization and Development
This continued growth has resulted in innovations in the construction and development of storage facilities. While older self-storage units consisted of many 5′ x 10′ units sprawled over an acre or so of property, companies now reinvent new storage plants into multi-story units with modern styles, better materials, and even robotic-ran facilities for the filthy rich. The Robovault faciltiy is located in Florida and is built to be a nice little safety blanket for all of your prized possessions, protecting them from thieves as well as Category 5 hurricanes! CCTV America goes more in-depth into these self-storage innovations in the video below.
Self- Storage Innovations and Technology
Josh Steimle writes in Forbes that one way that the self-storage industry is using tech to meet the needs of their customers is “valet storage.” Several valet operators have popped up in Hong Kong during the past year, including startups like AirBox, Boxful, and Spacebox. This feature entails the delivery of plastic storage bins to patrons who fill them up with items. The self-storage company picks up the containers and stores the articles for their customer. Clients can track their belongings through a website or a mobile app and request specific bins when they need to use them.
Parking is another industry that storage companies in Asia have began tapping into. In Hong Kong, MiniCo owns a 25-story building where the first floor is leased to car owners for daytime parking (a lucrative business in Hong Kong–last year a single parking spot in the city sold for $547,000 USD). More recently, another parking spot in Hong Kong sold for $$664,200, Hong Kong’s property prices are the most expensive in the world when measured by square footage, with Tokyo and London falling behind it. That spreads out to offices, apartments, and, eventually, parking garages. Parking spots have become a status symbol among the city’s richest denizens
On SpareFoot Storage Beat, Alexander Harris shares that one public storage company brought in $2.56 billion in 2016. The overall US revenue created by storage companies was $32.7 billion in 2016. Spending on self-storage construction reached more than $280 million in 2017.
STOW IT is also attempting to modernize and formalize a fragmented industry by methods such as Valet Vehicle Storage. We do this by offering outdoor storage, allowing customers to advertise their storage spaces on the STOW IT website, and offer a marketplace where people can find storage solutions for themselves. We like to call what we do–giving the power back to the people.
