European Self Storage Industry Report 2025

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European Self Storage Industry Report 2025

European Self Storage Annual Industry Report 2025

Real Estate Private Equity re-enters self storage market

Encouragingly, we have also seen high profile real estate private equity funds re-enter markets across Europe after exiting historic investments. Examples include Centerbridge’s acquisition of Second Space in the Nordics as well as the acquisition of Servistore by Heitman. These investors have a deep track record of acquiring growth platforms and exiting to lower cost capital institutions at strong EBITDA multiples. Whilst there are pockets of Core+ capital continuing to underwrite the self storage sector, some of these investors have repriced their cost of equity, to reflect heighted risk globally, softened consumer sentiment and shifts in the self storage investor landscape. In terms of capital geographical origination, the sector continues to see an influx of North American and Middle Eastern capital looking to take advantage of sidelined capital and this includes new strategic operators considering European expansion as well as new limited partners, including sovereign wealth and superannuation funds looking to collaborate with general partners. These investors continue to see the European self storage sector as a nascent but high growth market capable of diversifying their capital and driving long term rental growth and

capital appreciation. Examples include PGIM’s entrance to the French self-storage market, partnering with Pithos Capital and Zebrabox. 2025 YTD transaction volumes are €260m and are over 3x lower than 2024 LFL performance of €875m. Whilst there is a further circa €200m of pipeline deals expected to close in 2025, this would still show a significant normalisation of transactional evidence compared to the full year 2024 record of €1.2bn. We have also seen a preference to transact in Europe, with UK transactions only recording €66m YTD versus €591m YTD last year. This is primarily driven by a perception of stronger medium term growth rates in Europe and the cost of debt, which remains significantly lower than UK SONIA. It should also be noted that last years UK figures were inflated by the €473M enterprise value purchase of Lok’n Store by Shurgard. Transaction volumes have been disproportionately impacted by multiple high-profile transactions on pause. Those include Storage24 in Germany, France and Nordics, Less Mess in Poland & Czechia and Access Self Storage in the UK. Together, these transactions account for circa €2.5bn of transaction volume.

Transactions completed within the last 12 months include Nuveen’s successful Dec-24 acquisition of EasyBox in Italy, which was structured as a Joint Venture with Safestore. This was a major benchmark transaction for the Italian market and was funded by Nuveen’s General Account. Pricing was reported at €175m, reflecting circa 27x on forward looking 12-month EBITDA. The business traded with 10 operational stores and 2 development assets, totalling 72,762 sqm of MLA.

In the UK market Schroders closed the acquisition of three additional stores for their continued self-storage expansion programme. This involved two stores in ramp-up and a development site. The stores are operated and managed by Flexiss Group. In France, Ardian has continued its expansion via the purchase of Atout-Box, with 7 stores in the Occitanie region. Since the acquisition of Costockage in 2023, the business has grown to 19 stores.

Total EU Self Storage Investment Volumes (€m) 2018-2025 (Pipeline)

€1,400m

€1,200m

€1,000m

€540m

€800m

€727m

€600m

€495m

€338m

€400m

€191m

€677m

€117m

€120m

€200m

€194m

€300m

€270m

€100m

€252m

€159m

€155m

€76m

€66m

€0m

2018

2019

2020

2021

2022

2023

2024

2025

Total UK Investment Volume Total Europe Investment Volume

2025 Estimated Pipeline

CBRE RESEARCH AND FEDESSA

©2025 CBRE, INC. AND FEDESSA