Self-storage is big news in the UK, with every person using 0.5sqft of self-storage with the London figure at 1.02sqft. It took the UK by storm in 2000’s, originally starting out in the US in the 1960s. Britain now has an estimated 830 self-store units, this acquaints to the same amount as Europe all together. It is estimated total turnover for the UK self-storage industry in 2012 was £380m from roughly 400 different companies!
It seems as a nation we are hoarders, we have an inability to part with treasured possessions. However, it would seem that often these possessions once put into storage and out of our sight are very quickly forgotten about. People have been found to store items from university books to old birthday cards. It seemingly would show that we feel our identity is connected to these items to much so to bin them, but do not have the room or want to have on show in our houses to keep them in the home. Thereby forking out for costly storage units. It’s a ‘box it up, deal with it later’ BOOM within the UK and it hasn’t as of yet reached maturity in the UK market.
London has the highest rate of self-storage units, also the most costly. The majority of people who rent self-storage space live in the south, therefore the highest amount of self –store centres are based in the area.
Still, one thing that is vitally important when considering using self-storage in any part of the UK is: the Size of the items you want to store, the duration of time, you want to store the items for and the type of storage you need. Once this is decided you can choose from the 3 types of storage the UK has to offer conventional lock up garages, shipping containers and self-store units.
