How Landlords Can Benefit from the Rise in Self-Storage

How Landlords Can Benefit from the Rise in Self-Storage

Ask Generation Z, even Millennials, if they want to own their own home, and you’ll likely get a range of answers. Some may say that it’s a pipe dream. More aspirational young people may respond that they’re already saving.

Believe it or not, rental demand has increased by 51% over the last five years. 2022 alone saw an 11% rise in rental prices. Landlords are in a strong position. Even with house prices plateauing, there’s still the issue that property prices compared to national wages are a mite unfavourable. The result? More and more people of all ages rent their homes.

This healthy market means that landlords require a strong service infrastructure around them to deliver on their promises to tenants. Remember, the promise of renting a property to tenants and earning an income while owing a valuable asset has attracted many people to the property market.

Now, property prices may have slumped, but entrepreneurial people know that this might mean that there has seldom been a better time for experienced or novice landlords to get into the property game and lay the foundations for long-term financial gain.

As exciting as this forecasting sounds, what’s often neglected is the necessity of having the entire infrastructure landlords need to run their businesses.

This is where self-storage comes in.

Self-storage for landlords explained

Any landlord will tell you that it’s important to have a fair amount of storage space available at any given time. The more properties you own, the more storage square footage you’ll need.

Landlords may want to scale their storage square footage as their property portfolio grows. For this reason, it makes sense to use self-storage facilities because you can scale costs as you scale your square footage needs.

Then there’s the locality and convenience of self-storage facilities. The 2021–2022 academic year saw 120,000 students enrol in universities in the Greater Manchester area. Surely, having a convenient self-storage facility nearby will benefit landlords, right?

Let’s not also forget that there are 90,000 privately rented homes across Manchester. This accounts for 38% of the total housing in the city. Whether you’re a tenant looking for somewhere to store your excess belongings or a landlord with designs on scaling your property investments, having access to a local self-storage facility like EASS can be a godsend.

How landlords can benefit from self-storage services

If you’re a landlord, you’ll likely have a lot of stuff—unless, of course, you’re planning to rent unfurnished properties. You’ll need somewhere to store everything, and self-storage is the perfect solution.

Remember, the easier tenants’ lives are, the greater the chance of them sticking around longer. If they can rent a fully furnished home, one that comes with a comfy bed, tables and chairs, sofas, and all the mod cons, they’ll likely put down their deposit quickly and stay longer.

Don’t forget, too, that one of the cornerstones of being a good landlord is keeping tenants happy. A fully equipped, ordered household, complete with everything tenants need, is a great way to increase tenant retention.

Landlords can even offer a self-storage service as part of their services. This could be very appealing to a range of tenants, especially those who are relocating to a different part of the UK for a working secondment. Why? It simplifies the move, saving them the hassle of potentially having to put their belongings into storage at an extra cost.

Then there’s the range of additional services landlords can benefit from. From secure storage to a place where archived paperwork be kept. Sure, digital record-keeping may be mainstream, but landlords who’ve been in the property game for decades may have reams and reams of historical paperwork. Self-storage is a great way to securely store vital information.

Moving furniture and appliances between properties

Landlords with 5, 10, or more properties in their portfolios may discover that it’s a wise idea to have a local self-storage facility. Here, they can store and transport furniture from property to property with minimal hassle.

This can be invaluable to landlords because tenants have certain expectations. Let’s say that the washing machine breaks. Tenants aren’t going to sit around twiddling their thumbs until a new one miraculously appears. They’re going to get on the phone with the landlord and ask them to replace it asap. But not every landlord has a spare washing machine lying around their home!

It’s not uncommon for landlords to use self-storage units to store excess necessities, just as retail outlets use self-storage facilities to store excess stock. A quick drive to a local self-storage unit, and landlords can collect the washing machine—or whatever they need—at the property and put a smile back on their tenants faces!

The good news is that self-storage units allow landlords to store pretty much whatever they’ll need, up to and including the kitchen sink!

It’s easier to complete renovations.

To successfully rent properties, landlords have to make them as attractive as possible. That means in-between tenancies, everything from a lick of paint to new furniture may be needed to transform the living environment.

The whole process can take time, and you can’t very well leave beds, sofas, dining room tables and chairs, and everything in between on the driveway until renovations are completed!

Enter self-storage. Landlords can leverage self-storage services to store household furniture, appliances, and soft furniture temporarily or permanently with confidence while they renovate properties.

This means one less thing to think about or worry about while renovating properties to be ready for the next tenant.

Extending furniture and appliance lifespans

It can be tempting for landlords to store excess furniture, appliances, and everything in between wherever they can. Your garage. A friend’s home. A warehouse. But there’s a problem with this: your furniture, appliances, soft furnishings, and everything else may not be suited for long-term storage. The result? When you get them back, they might be better put on a skip!

Good self-storage facilities, like EASS, will be able to offer clean, temperature-controlled environments to store whatever you need. This will prevent dampness, dirt, and debris—even pests—from finding a home on your belongings, extending their lifespan.

Controlling costs

Now more than any other time in the last few decades, landlords are keeping a close eye on their costs. Mortgage interest rates have skyrocketed. The Office for National Statistics reported that mortgage costs rose by 61% for the average semi-detached home in 2022.

This statistic is a snapshot of the UK property industry, but there’s no denying that for many landlords, making money has become a whole lot harder.

As we’ve mentioned previously, self-storage costs can be scaled according to landlord needs. But, more than that, self-storage helps landlords store excess furniture, appliances, and soft furnishings from properties that they may have decided to sell to consolidate their portfolios in the wake of rising interest rates.

Better still, self-storage services do not require any long-term financial commitment. Landlords don’t have to worry about being stuck with a financial millstone around their neck, forking out money they can’t really afford month in and month out for storage that they don’t need.

Self-storage is a no-brainer for landlords.

These are just a few of the more notable ways that landlords can benefit from the rise in self-storage. We’ve not even mentioned the superior security offered by leading self-storage facilities, like EASS, that we offer, or the match and insurance costs.

Whether you have one, two, twenty, or thirty properties, self-storage is essential at all stages of tenancies, from offering self-storage as a separate service to tenants before they move in to easing any transition when they decide to move out.

Are you a landlord and interested in learning about how EASS can make your life so much easier? Get in touch with us today.

Sources:

https://www.hometrack.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/UK-rental-market-report-Final-March-2023-HT.pdf

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=how+many+university+students+come+to+manchester+each+each&sca_esv=556766949&sxsrf=AB5stBjhGypVeQAidhMxcht0hx7Nn5hbyw%3A1692023327846&source=hp&ei=HzraZLDYL5G3hbIP_6-W0AU&iflsig=AD69kcEAAAAAZNpIL53lPiWugAGWI6kX14S2-FrDbfJ1&ved=0ahUKEwjw452LrtyAAxWRW0EAHf-XBVoQ4dUDCAs&uact=5&oq=how+many+university+students+come+to+manchester+each+each&gs_lp=Egdnd3Mtd2l6GgIYAiI5aG93IG1hbnkgdW5pdmVyc2l0eSBzdHVkZW50cyBjb21lIHRvIG1hbmNoZXN0ZXIgZWFjaCBlYWNoMgUQIRigATIFECEYoAEyBRAhGKABSK5wUABYqm5wB3gAkAEBmAHMA6AB3i2qAQo0My43LjIuMi4xuAEDyAEA-AEBwgIHECMYigUYJ8ICBBAjGCfCAg4QABiABBixAxiDARiLA8ICGhAuGIMBGMcBGLEDGNEDGIAEGIsDGKgDGNIDwgIUEC4YigUYsQMYgwEYiwMYpAMYqAPCAhoQLhiABBixAxiDARjHARjRAxiLAxioAxjSA8ICFxAuGIAEGLEDGMcBGNEDGIsDGKgDGNIDwgIXEC4YgAQYsQMYgwEYiwMYmgMYqAMYmwPCAgsQABiKBRiRAhiLA8ICCBAAGIAEGIsDwgILEAAYgAQYsQMYiwPCAgUQABiABMICBRAuGIAEwgIHEC4YgAQYCsICBhAAGBYYHsICCBAuGIAEGLEDwgIIEAAYgAQYsQPCAggQABiKBRiRAsICDhAAGIoFGLEDGJECGIsDwgIHEC4YDRiABMICBxAAGA0YgATCAgoQABiABBgUGIcCwgIIECEYFhgeGB3CAgQQIRgVwgIHECEYoAEYCg&sclient=gws-wiz

https://www.manchesterworld.uk/news/manchester-streets-every-other-house-owned-landlords-4142082

https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/housing/articles/monthlymortgagerepaymentsup61foraveragesemidetachedhomeintheuk/2023-03-08