Marcus & Millichap, a commercial property-investment firm serving the self-storage industry, has released its semi-annual national self-storage report for the second half of 2016. The report is produced by the firm’s National Self-Storage Group and released through its Research Services arm.
The four-page report covers key factors driving self-storage use including job growth, industry capitalization (cap) rates compared to the 10-year Treasury average, demographic trends, occupancy and property sales. It also includes five regional breakdowns for the Midwest, Northeast, Southwest, South Atlantic and West.
“The self-storage market is well-positioned for the second half of the year as a resilient national economy, healthy population growth and rising disposable income support improving property fundamentals,” company analysts wrote.
The report cautions that an influx of storage development in some secondary markets could signal problems in the future. “The primary headwind facing the self-storage sector remains the threat of over construction. After years of being undersupplied following the recession, development activity has taken off,” the report states. “Most of the building is localized to major metros that have the capacity to handle the influx; however, specific submarkets in these areas may face challenges moving forward.”
The report also indicates that real estate investment trusts (REITs) continue to pursue property deals despite softening prices and flattening cap rates. “REITs as well as other large equity groups are maintaining their strategy of aggressive acquisition. In order to achieve benchmark rates of return, many public REITs are investigating secondary markets, class-B portfolios and certificate-of-occupancy deals as the inventory of institutional-grade listings dwindles,” analysts wrote. “Moving forward, the limiting factor impacting future transaction volume will be a lack of available listings.”
The Self-Storage Research national report is published twice each year and may be downloaded for free by users who register with the company’s website.
Marcus & Millichap produces more than 2,000 research products each year, officials said. The Research Services department offers a range of publications, from national economic perspectives to property-type-specific analyses at the market level. The company website enables users to search for reports by multi-family and commercial property type, as well as by location and keyword.
Founded in 1971, Marcus & Millichap is a commercial property-investment firm with more than 1,500 investment professionals in offices throughout Canada and the United States. The firm closed more than 8,700 transactions in 2015 with a value of approximately $37.8 billion.
