BlackRock backs $150m Perth deal in booming self-storage sector

Major global players are taking a keen interest in self-storage facilities in Australia, with the sector already well established in other world markets. A low-cost operating model combined with growing demand for self-storage as lifestyles change underpins its growth.

The Perth deal also highlights the ambition that BlackRock harbours for StoreLocal, after taking a controlling stake in the local platform last year through funds it manages through its real estate arm.

That investment from the US giant in May took StoreLocal to over $1 billion in secured capital, including fresh commitments. Already Australasia’s fourth-largest player, StoreLocal is targeting a $2 billion self-storage platform, which it plans to create through both acquisitions and developments while expanding its third-party management operation.

The platform has doubled in value since BlackRock bought in, according to StoreLocal’s co-founder and chief executive Hans Pearson.

“We have demonstrated our transactional capability and capital depth to the market with this most recent portfolio acquisition at a time of industry consolidation and institutionalisation.

“By adding to our existing multi-store Perth portfolio we are now the largest operator in the West and we are well positioned to service this fast-growing demographic.”

Interest in the self-storage sector is surging, with a run of headline deals and offers through last year. It culminated in a $4 billion offer by Brookfield and Singaporean wealth giant GIC to take private the country’s largest self-storage operator National Storage REIT. A scheme implementation was agreed in December.

Other major deals included Kennards Self Storage’s purchase of Auckland storage operator National Mini Storage and its portfolio of 13 facilities. That deal will give Kennards a portfolio of 126 operating locations and market value of over $4 billion.

Another major global investment name, Barings, has also forged into the sector through a $200 million investment in Swift Storage, giving it a majority stake in the high-tech, contactless self-storage operator.

Figures from industry group Self Storage Association of Australia estimate a record year for transactions in 2025, with a more than $5 billion in going concern deals across the $20 billion sector.

Makala Ffrench Castelli, the industry group’s chief executive, said the shift in investment was a clear signal of the sector’s maturity.

“The buyer landscape has changed,” she said. “Once dominated by REITs, we’ve watched private equity and private investors accelerate their activity.”

That weight of capital has intersected with a relatively thin pool of available investment-grade stock, she said. Off-market deals remain common, and bidding tension is evident for quality assets in the capital cities. The sector’s long-term fundamentals of resilient income, scalability and favourable demographic drivers appealed to major investors, she said.

“Movement of people, housing market activity, densification and discretionary spend all show positive trends for self storage demand,” she said. More than 9 per cent of the population in Australia and New Zealand use self-storage, according to the SSAA.

StoreLocal owns and manages more than 45 facilities across Australia, which operates on a 24/7 unstaffed store model, boosting operating margins. The assets are held in funds for which StoreLocal – via a subsidiary called StoreInvest – acts as the developer and fund manager.

That fully digitalised, remotely controlled system gave StoreLocal a competitive edge through its low operating costs, helping fuel the platform’s expansion, said Ben Hickey, BlackRock’s head of Australasia Real Estate.