The pandemic boom in self-storage demand — fueled by remote workers decluttering, moving or clearing rooms for home offices, gyms and businesses — appears to be easing as some customers give up their units to cut costs.
Even so, foot traffic is still steady at self-storage facilities, bolstered by fresh evidence that some users are "serial storers" who visited their units four or more times last year, according to a report from traffic analytics firm Placer.ai.
Nearly 40% of the people who rented space from Public Storage and Extra Space Storage, two of the industry's biggest self-storage companies, visited two or more times in 2022, according to the Placer.ai report. Between 15.4% and 17.8% of visitors returned at least four times.
The repeat visits may be helping to prop up average monthly self-storage foot traffic that remains at levels well above a January 2019 baseline, according to the Placer.ai report. The firm measured repeat visits for the first time in 2002.
Taken together, the repeat-visit and monthly traffic data could be a sign that many customers will keep renewing their leases because they see their storage unit as a worthwhile investment, according to the report.
"Renters of commercial units are putting them to frequent use, giving all indications that demand is high and will remain so for the foreseeable future,” the report stated.
Self-storage demand has eased from record highs during the pandemic as tenants move out of storage to save money amid rising inflation, according to industry analysts and top executives with the biggest publicly traded self-storage companies.
"While we continue to see the operating environment normalize as compared to the height of the pandemic, occupancy and asking rates remain above pre-pandemic levels," Joe Saffire, CEO of New York-based Life Storage Inc., said during its most recent earnings call.