Self-storage REITs cash in on hot real estate market

Three of the top five REITs are currently self-storage companies

A self-storage building in Brooklyn
A self-storage building in Brooklyn

Storage companies are booming and cashing in on improving property values. According to the Bloomberg REIT Index, three of the top five REITs are self-storage companies — excluding firms with less than $100 million in market value.

And the best-performing of the top four publicly listed self-storage companies is Extra Space Storage, with an annualized return of 36.7 percent over the last three years, according to the Washington Post.

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“People accumulate too much stuff,” John Murphy, an analyst at Cohen & Steers, a New York-based real estate investment firm that holds a 10 percent stake in Extra Space, told the Washington Post.

“Self-storage has come out of obscurity,” says Extra Space’s CEO Spencer Kirk, added. “It’s no longer the goofy real estate class. It’s the real estate class that during the recession did better than any other.” [WP]Christopher Cameron