A number of people just can’t seem to part with some of their belongings. It’s not a matter of hoarding but a matter of sentimental value. The result is clutter—not enough room to store all those valuables!
However, there’s a solution to this problem that not only homeowners face but business enterprises as well: self-storage facilities. An article by A.D. Pruitt reports on the interest of real estate investors in this kind of property because of their growing number of clients, as quoted here:
Self storage had long been a sleepy market that counts about 55,000 properties
nationwide that are mostly operated by mom-and-pop landlords. The sector became
more popular over the past few years after catching the eye of a growing number of
private-equity investors and entrepreneurs who, armed with cheap financing and
dwindling options for high-yielding investments, started bidding up properties.
Self storage owes its growing appeal to a perception among investors that the industry is recession-proof because people need storage in times of personal upheaval, natural
disasters or a move. The industry also has pop-culture cache with the popular reality
TV series “Storage Wars” that debuted on the A&E Network in 2010.
Tthe article further mentions a real estate investment trust that sold 14 self-storage properties across the New York metropolitan area for several hundred million dollars. It shows how these facilities have attracted a number of clients—both homeowners and businessmen—to merit such interest from investors. The popularity of these facilities comes from the benefits they provide, like Manhattan storage facilities run by Gibraltar Self Storage, which offers small storage lockers to full size rooms for business and household use.
According to Pruitt, “self-storage now enjoys record-high occupancy rates of around 90% as people are more apt to keep the discretionary expense during the economic recovery.” The article also quotes from a source that there are around 200 self-storage facilities that are presently under construction or renovation nationwide compared with the 2,600 facilities that were put up during the market boom from 2003 to 2007.
The good news is self storage facilities in Manhattan, Queens, Brooklyn and other parts of New York City provide convenient locations for people to store their belongings. They offer various storage solutions for all kinds and sizes of materials you may want to keep. You can use the facilities for as long as you need them.
(From Self Storage Gains Cachet as Values Rise, The Wall Street Journal, February 19, 2013)