One sector of Central Florida’s commercial real estate had a big year in 2021 as spending on self storage space surged to a record $188 million. StorageCafe’s latest industry report took a deep dive into transactions and identified the top self storage markets based on surges in investor interest in 2021.
While New York City had two boroughs crack our top 10 of cities for self storage sales volume, Florida had the most entries with three spots — Tampa (fifth with nearly $98 million transacted), Orlando (sixth, $90 million) and Miami (ninth, about $77 million). The Central Florida market ranks in the top 10 on the list, with almost $188 million in self storage deals completed in 2021.
Here are other highlights on Tampa and Orlando’s self storage transactions activity in 2021:
- Deal activity in the self storage sector in Tampa was nearly 10 times higher than in 2020 and 5 times higher in Orlando.
- Median sales price per square foot for self storage property in Tampa increased from $64 in 2020 to $91.78 in 2021, a year-over-year increase of 43.4%. At the same time in Orlando, the median sales price per square foot for self storage property increased from $57.28 in 2020 to $96.57 in 2021, a year-over-year increase of 68.6%.
- Overall, 13 facilities changed hands in Tampa in 2021, comprising nearly 1 million square feet of storage, and 11 facilities in Orlando, comprising nearly 931K square feet of storage.
- Despite these markets being fairly well penetrated and offering reasonable rents —Tampa offers 8sqft/capita and Orlando 9sqft/capita — street rates have seen a 9.7% year-over-year increase and a 14.14% respectively. They are now standing at $118/month for a 10×10 unit in Tampa and $117/month in Orlando, below the national average $128.
- Nationally, self storage sales volume surpassed $10.9 billion in 2021, the highest transaction volume on record.
Growth in the self storage sector is expected to remain positive, with demand driven by the pandemic recovery and the overall steady demand for extra space.
Find the full StorageCafe industry report here.
