The pandemic has created an even greater demand for self storage. And the industry continues to capitalize on this elevated demand. Significant rent improvements across the U.S. Street-rate rents rose 8% for a 10×10 non-climate-controlled and 9.5% for the climate-controlled units of similar size, year-over-year as of April 2021. The national street rates also experienced strong growth on a month-over-month basis, increased 1.7% for the 10×10 non-climate-controlled and 2.2% for climate-controlled units of similar size.
This record rent performance on a year-over-year basis may be attributed to the sharp rebound storage rates experienced after the initial dive at the onset of the pandemic. The city of Miami led the markets in rent growth for the average 10×10 non-climate-controlled units, rising 15.1% year-over-year in April 2021. Street rates for the 10×10 climate-controlled units also increased 14.7%, ranking Miami the fourth-best performing metro for this unit type.
The metro also recorded substantial rent growth on a month-over-month basis, up 3.6% and 3.1% for the average 10×10 non-climate- and climate-controlled units. With only 6.6 net rentable square feet of storage space available per capita, below the 6.8 national average, Miami will likely continue to see positive rent performance in the upcoming quarters.
Although industry experts predict an eventual slowdown in self storage construction, development activity remained steady. Nationwide, projects under construction or in the planning stages accounted for 8.3% of total stock, up 10 basis points over the previous month. Despite being somewhat oversupplied, with 8.1 net rentable square feet of storage space available per person, Sacramento saw the largest increase in construction activity—its new supply pipeline grew from 13 percent in March to 14.6% in April.
In the meantime, before you own your own property, and if you are looking for a cost-effective storage option, don’t overlook a storage unit from Mindful Workspaces & Storage. They provide key solutions to many business issues such as extra office space. And remember that storage containers do not require much to set up and are a great temporary alternative for businesses that require storage.