New research from JLL and the Federation of European Self Storage Associations (FEDESSA) highlights a buoyant self-storage market with room for further growth and investment opportunities. 

The survey of key operators, investors and funders in the sector from across Europe shows that there has been €500m of transactions over the last year, an increase of 25% on 2015.

Urbanisation is a strong driver for self-storage demand. JLL research shows that across Europe 75% of people live in cities and that this number is expected to continue to rise. There is more than 7.7m sqm of self-storage across Europe.

The UK market remains the largest market comprising 39% of the total number of European facilities, but with the expectation that there will be significant expansion in the next few years across the rest of Europe. 

Ollie Saunders, lead director at JLL’s alternatives team, commented: “In a crowded real estate market, investors are finding it increasingly challenging to allocate capital in traditional real estate sectors. This is encouraging investors into alternative markets such as self-storage. Alternative assets are attractive due to low interest rates, improving user demand and a favourable supply and demand equation.”