Real Estate Firms Release Overviews of 4Q 2014 Self-Storage REIT Performance

Real estate firms BayView Advisors and MJ Partners Real Estate Services have released online reports highlighting key performance metrics from the fourth-quarter 2014 financial results issued by the four publicly traded U.S.-based self-storage real estate investment trusts (REITs)—CubeSmart, Extra Space Storage Inc., Public Storage Inc. and Sovran Self Storage Inc.

The seven-page “Self-Storage Industry and REIT Report” from BayView highlights year-over-year results on rental revenue, tracks quarterly occupancy for the last three years, and includes dividend amounts, facility counts, square footage and stock prices for all four REITs and AMERCO, the parent company of U-Haul International Inc. It also includes self-storage performance summaries for each company.

“We are currently seeing an influx of new construction permits, and we will continue to monitor this very closely,” said Jay J. Crotty, managing partner for BayView. “The lending environment continues to be very favorable and should allow most owners with loans coming due to refinance at favorable rates, depending on the market value of the property.”

The 37-page “Self Storage Market Overview” from MJ Partners offers a market overview, including implied cap rates and investment activity for all four REITs, as well as chart data and side-by-side comparisons on self-storage facility performance. It also contains information from analysts on macroeconomic trends impacting the U.S. storage industry as well as a look at storage REIT performance as a whole.

All four REITs reported healthy numbers, with each indicating occupancy levels during the fourth quarter of at least 89.4 percent. Public Storage achieved the highest occupancy, 93.5 percent, during the quarter, while Extra Space showed the largest year-over-year occupancy gain, improving from 89.5 percent to 91.4 percent.

Extra Space also tallied the largest year-over-year revenue gain for the fourth quarter, with an increase of 7.3 percent. Same-store net operating income was also up for all four REITs during the quarter, with Extra Space having the largest gain at 9.5 percent, followed by CubeSmart (6.6 percent) and Sovran (6.3 percent), which operates the Uncle Bob’s Self Storage brand. For all of 2014, CubeSmart, Extra Space and Sovran posted revenue increases of more than 7 percent.

Public Storage garnered the largest rent per square foot from same-store locations during the quarter at $15.20, followed by Extra Space ($14.83), CubeSmart ($13.86) and Sovran ($11.72).

Inside Self-Storage also published a summary of fourth-quarter financial results for all four REITs.

Headquartered in Tampa, Fla., BayView is an investment sales and advisory firm specializing in self-storage acquisition, development, facility expansion and renovation, refinancing, and sales.

Headquartered in Chicago, MJ Partners is a full-service real estate brokerage and investment banking company specializing in commercial real estate, mortgage banking and consulting services. The company's clients include major financial institutions, private equity funds, REITs, opportunity funds, insurance companies, pension-fund advisors, corporations, private developers and entrepreneurial businesses.