Results of 2021: self-storage of St Petersburg increased by 2.5 times

A fairly young segment of commercial real estate is demonstrating enviable stability over the past few years. Stable growth trend, which we believe will continue in the medium term, has formed on the market in 2021.

Offer

132 individual storage warehouses are on the market of St. Petersburg at the end of 2021. That includes — Mini Sklad, Smart Sklad, Kladovochka RF, TvoiSklad24, Prostor.

Over 2021 the number of warehouse facilities of such format has increased by 53 (compared to December 2020), and the total number of operators has increased to 43 (+15 in 2021). For years the number of objects on the market has increased by 2.5 times.

Comparing to 2020, when the segment grew mainly due to cheaper, unheated facilities, in 2021 the growth was provided by the most expensive and high-quality heated storage facilities. According to the results of the end of 2021, the segment of SS heated warehouse complexes accounted to 26% (+4 pp), the share of mixed format, on the contrary, decreased and amounted to 5% (-1 pp). Unheated self-storage warehouses occupy the majority of the market – 69% of the gross supply in the city (-3 pp).

The leaders in terms of supply on the market are Primorsky (13%), Nevsky and Vyborgsky districts of the city with 11% of the gross supply each. They are followed by the Krasnogvardeisky district with a 10% share in the gross supply.

Demand

Since the beginning of the pandemic the requirements for the comfort of living space have increased which has become a catalyst for an increase in demand on the market of individual storage warehouses.

Market participants associate the growth in demand for individual storage services with the development of online commerce as well as with high mobility of customers and reduction in the average area of purchased housing. The main demand is formed by individuals – 80%.

Commercial terms

According to experts from Maris| Part of the CBRE Affiliate Network, as of the end of 2021, the asking rental rates in self-storage heated warehouse complexes on average decreased by 5.2%, compared to the indicators as at the end of 2020, and amounted to 800-2,000 RUB per sqm per month. Rental rates in the segment of unheated storage facilities increased by 21.5% over the year and range from RUB 700 to RUB 1,400 per sqm. In the current environment, the warehouse real estate market is the most dynamically developing sector of commercial real estate.

Development forecast

In the current conditions the warehouse real estate market is the most dynamically developing sector of commercial real estate.

Most likely the market will continue to grow next year, perhaps not at the rapid pace that we have observed. The growth rates will be restrained by increasing operating expenses and stagnant real disposable monetary incomes of the population since 2019, which significantly limits the potential for demand growth in the market.