Malcolm's Blog

It’s of continuing concern to me that having just valued another provincial (smaller scale) self storage facility operated by a local estate agent, I have once again been confronted with management that is unhelpful, reactive and lacking focus, using reporting tools that are simplistic and too high-level, and by agency staff themselves who are re...

In quite a few conversations I’ve had with clients and individual bankers around the country recently it is apparent that the major banks are again confirming self storage’s risk profile and ongoing business prospects as something they would like to finance, in stark contrast to their opinions of the industry 6 to 12 months ago. […]

Over the last several months I have needed to speak with major Banks in all of our capital cities regarding various self storage loan facilities coming due for refinance. On each occasion, it was apparent that most of the banking people I spoke with have little understanding of self storage. At a recent Self Storage […]

I recently held a phone conversation with a major Bank property officer. He couldn’t understand why adopting an established yield return per square metre, on a strongly performing and “proven” operator could be transferred to that facility’s next stage. Whilst the overall unit mix would of course change, including the addition of many more ...

Despite the current post-GFC environment going concern, Self Storage facilities are still selling (albeit in small numbers), scattered around the country. Several provincial city facilities have recently sold at yields indicative of the lack of good quality assets in particular areas. The attraction of properly-run, estate agent operated (small) fa...

I was recently speaking to the property people in four of our major banks. They each, in their own way, told me that their bank had lost its appetite for risk, lending has slowed appreciably, bank portfolios are being re-weighted out of property exposure, and good clients do not automatically get preference over new loans, […]

A capitalization (cap) rate, in simple terms, refers to the net return expected from an investment. A going-concern storage business is worth what someone is willing to pay for it (or sell it for), based upon its perceived (higher) future net income earning capacity and value in the buyer’s ownership, and the risks involved in […]