On behalf of the team at Blackwell Consulting, we wish you a happy new year and warmest wishes for 2012.

The last quarter (December 2011) BSI Results show:

• Average Storage Fee Rate continuing to increase. However, it remains apparent that growth in average Storage Fee Rates may have been at the expense of occupancy.

• Three zones showed nominal increases in occupancy over the quarter, being Brisbane Outer Zone (+0.64%), Sydney Outer Zone (+0.94%) and Auckland Zone (+1.27%).

• Four of the seven zones saw marginal, positive increases in overall Monthly Revenue over the quarter.

• The Auckland market is showing continuing signs of recovery with a second quarter of growth in Storage Fee Rates, Area Occupied and overall Monthly Revenue. 

The following graph shows the weighted average rate per square metre, unit size and area occupied for the seven zones, as well as the East Coast of Australia and combined Australia and New Zealand averages.

Storage Fee Rates (SFR) 

• Six of the seven zones achieved positive increases in Storage Fee Rates over the Quarter. The exception was Brisbane Outer Zone, with a minor decline of -0.16%.

• The greatest increase in SFR over the quarter was achieved by Melbourne Inner Zone, with an increase of +2.06%.

• Over the last twelve months from December 2010, all East Coast Australian Zones have achieved modest increases in Storage Fee Rates, with an average increase of +3.2% across all zones over the 12 month period.

• Over the three and a half years of data monitoring, all seven zones have achieved increases in Storage Fee Rates. Melbourne Inner Zone, Melbourne Outer Zone and Sydney Outer Zone have achieved the greatest increases of +17.31%, +17.06% and +14.71% respectively.

Area Occupied 

• Over the December Quarter, five of the seven zones had decreases in Area Occupied. The exception was Sydney Outer Zone and Brisbane Outer Zone, however increases in both zones were by less than 1 per cent, being +0.94% and +0.64% respectively.

• This declining trend in Area Occupied is apparent over the whole period of the BSI (June 2008 to December 2011), where six of the seven zones have experienced decreases in Area Occupied. The exception is Brisbane Inner Zone, with a very marginal increase of +0.06% over the period.

• The two Sydney Zones have experienced the greatest decline in Area Occupied over the three and a half year period with decreases of -6.44% (Sydney Inner Zone) and -5.70% (Sydney Outer Zone).

Monthly Revenue

• Monthly Revenue saw a positive increase over the quarter for over half of the zones monitored.

• Three zones (Sydney Outer Zone, Melbourne Outer Zone and Brisbane Inner Zone) have seen negative growth in Monthly Revenue over the twelve months December 2010 to December 2011. This may be attributable to decreases of over 4% in Area Occupied for the three Zones over the same 12 month period.

• Once again, Auckland Zone achieved the highest increase in Monthly Revenue, with a modest increase of +1.81%. This follows an increase of +5.29% in the previous quarter (September 2011) and continues to stem from corresponding increases in Storage Fee Rates and Area Occupied (following over 2 years of decline) over the quarter.

The following graph shows the index movements within the whole East Coast Australia Zone bi-annually over the period of the BSI:

The following graph shows the index movements within the Auckland Zone bi-annually over the period of the BSI:

The Blackwell Storage Index is now on Twitter (BSIStorage) please click the link available on our website to follow us for updates on the self storage industry and BSI news, discussions and trends.

 

If you have any questions, please contact Lauren van Aanholt by email (lauren@blackwellconsulting.com.au) or on (02) 9810 9118.