• Storage Room Assets’ Overview

    September, 2022

Under the current economic context, affected by inflation and growing interest rates, storage rooms assets are becoming a very popular investment alternative due to the attractive rental income they offer. Additionally, the reduced size of homes in large cities has meant that people is in need of additional space to store their belongings, which implies the demand for this asset class is continuously growing in the last years.

In recent years, Spain has experienced a sharply rise in the number of storage rooms, with more than 600 storage room assets, of which +50% are located in Madrid and Barcelona. The Spanish market is, in general, a highly concentrated market in terms of locations, but very diversified in terms of operators and owners as c.75% of the national market is in hands of owners with only one storage room asset.

Distinction must be made between assets in the centre of large cities and assets in the periphery. In the case of assets in the periphery, the minimum area to obtain solid returns is c. 2,500/sq.m., whereas in large cities, investors are developing feasible projects from 500/sq.m. upwards, mainly because the average rent in these cities is much higher.

Furthermore, the average acquisition cost of a storage room is c.€2,750/sq.m to c.€3,000/sq.m. The average return sought by a developer when investing in this type of asset is c. 9%, although funds acquiring yielding portfolios expect returns of c. 6%

Rents range from c. €30/sq.m./month and c. €35/sq.m./month in the centre of large cities to c. €15/sq.m./month and c. €22/sq.m./month in the peripheral areas.