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Increasing house prices and shrinking apartment sizes are among the factors causing a boom in the Jersey's self-storage businesses.
Directors of Le Gallais and Store It C.I. have said that barriers to upsizing, coupled with incentives and the need to downsize, have driven a “spike” in customers.
This comes as a study by the Self Storage Association UK revealed that in 2022, UK households and businesses placed enough into storage units to occupy more than 2 million sq ft (185,000 sq metres) – driving up revenues among operators by 6.5% to £990m.
A survey of thousands of UK customers revealed that the most common reasons for using self-storage was a lack of space at home, a house move, major life events such as a death, inheritance or divorce, and renovations.
The Economist also reported that working from home had instigated a newfound desire to clear out living spaces, and businesses were using them to store supplies.
It further found that over the past three years, self-storage occupancy rates have risen from 90% to 96%.
The Guardian reported that self-storage units were springing up alongside new housing developments across the UK, with at least 280 more stores planned between now and 2026 – a more than 10% increase.
With the size of new apartments shrinking in Jersey and mortgages rates rising to 4.5% over the past 12 months, Express wanted to know if there was 'space' for this trend in the island...
Pictured: Le Gallais self-storage site. (Rob Currie)
Robin Sappé, the director of Le Gallais, said he has seen an increase in customers using his business's three self-storage units in the east of the island – so much so that he is considering expanding westward.
"We have definitely seen a real spike in the past year with our Five Oaks store filling up quicker than expected."
"That is probably driven by the number of apartments and the type of developments in the island now," he explained.
"We are consumers by nature, and I think that a lot of modern apartments don't have adequate storage, not like a house where you have a loft or garage. But people have these items, such as stuff they collect, luggage, Christmas decorations."
"We even have people living in apartments who store their wardrobe in rotation. They store winter clothes throughout the summer and reverse that in the winter."
"With rising house prices, if people are buying a property now, they need to pay considerably more for an extra bedroom, but if that's just going to be a dumping ground then sometimes they're better off storing that stuff with us so that they can save capital and still access it when they want."
"There are many diverse uses," he added. These include business owners who are being hit by inflating prices.
"Particularly electricians and those in the building trades secure stock now at a lower price because they are seeing increases of 5% or 10%, month on month. If they can buy the stock they need for a job that might take 12 months, they can store it with us."
He added that downsizing to a smaller property or apartment had caused Islanders to rent storage units of decreasing size, paring down and sorting through their belongings.
"It's certainly becoming more popular," he concluded.
Carl Le Brocq, managing director of Store-IT CI said that while he had not seen a "spike" necessarily, all of his large self-storage units were full and had been full for twenty years.
He added: "Last year when a long-standing client moved out of one of our very large units, we had a change around and formed 25 smaller units, from 16sq feet to 35sq feet, as this seemed the most common size people were asking for."
"We only have about half of the new smaller units still available."
He said that self-storage used to be a hotter business, but has cooled due to the appearance of several competing companies in the Island.
There were two clear themes in feedback from customers using his services, Carl said, which break down into:
Small apartments with little or no storage space available.
People are down-sizing to a smaller property and still want to keep hold of personal items.
The owner of another self-storage business, who did not wish to be named, said that he had experienced the "opposite" due to what he termed "the credit crunch".
"There are less house moves now, and particularly islanders moving off the island and back to the UK, taking their possessions in storage with them."
"Our bread and butter is people moving house," he continued. "We have seen a tightening of the belt, with increasing mortgage rates. People who had storage units have found they could keep it at home and save on rental costs."
He noted, however, that "there are still new stores opening. It has become quite attractive in the past few years with people trying to get involved in this business. Jersey is reaching capacity when it comes to self-storage businesses."
Peter Seymour of The Mortgage Shop told the Jersey Evening Post said that Jersey's housing market had "slowed dramatically" as rises in interest rates were limiting prospective buyers' purchasing power.
Pictured top: inside the Le Gallais self-storage site. (Rob Currie)
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