has taken off<\/a>. Construction starts for the sector averaged 11 million net rentable square feet per quarter in 2021 and 2022. By 2023, construction starts jumped to an average of 13.5 million net rentable square feet in the first and second quarters, and peaked at 16.1 million net rentable square feet in the third quarter of last year.\u00a0<\/p>\n\u201cRobust construction activity at year-end 2023 has led to an increase in forecasted new supply for 2024 and 2025,\u201d the report stated. \u201cBut significantly higher numbers of abandoned and deferred projects suggest longer-term development interest is waning.\u201d<\/p>\n
As more Americans turned to self-storage in the last two decades, the sector has garnered the attention of investors, who have been attracted to the sector\u2019s steady development metrics and income growth. But the growing amount of supply has dampened investor sentiment, and, as construction reaches peak limits, the ensuing years of the 2020s are expected to see lower levels of new rentable square feet.<\/p>\n
Yardi Matrix revised its expectations of the amount of new net rentable square feet in the self-storage sector for 2027 and 2028, shaving off 7 million and 18 million square feet of projected rentable supply for those specific years from what it forecasted just one quarter ago.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re going to see what\u2019s in the system pump out, flush out, but the longer-term forecast, because of deceleration of the population and migration patterns, won\u2019t be as robust as it once was,\u201d explained Ressler. \u201cCertainly, because of the cost of construction, the next decade won\u2019t be the same as the last 10 years, irregardless of what the Fed does. So that is not going to improve the situation.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
The reason for this huge revision of expected supply is simple: More self-storage properties are being deferred or abandoned altogether all across the country.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
The number of abandoned storage properties increased throughout 2023, according to Yardi Matrix. While an average of only eight properties were abandoned per month in the second half of 2022, 44 properties were abandoned this past November alone.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Moreover, the 245 nationwide self-storage properties that were abandoned in 2023 represented a 104.2 percent increase from the number of properties abandoned in 2022.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re seeing a growing number of abandoned and deferred projects, and that is really noticeably starting to increase,\u201d said Ressler. \u201cA lot is with the small providers but it is growing, and it\u2019s growing across the country.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brian Pascus can be reached at\u00a0<\/i>bpascus@commercialobserver.com<\/i><\/a>\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The reason for this huge revision of expected supply is simple: More self-storage properties are being deferred or abandoned altogether all across the country.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3681,"featured_media":376135,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3007,2965,2823],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-376134","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-industry-news","category-performance","category-self-storage"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
Self-Storage Supply Expected to Plunge: Report - Blue Vault<\/title>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n