The past decade of eye-popping population growth bolstered multifamily development efforts in the Metro Phoenix region. The consequent apartment boom we witnessed over the last decade has naturally created a context for Phoenix self storage to thrive.

The self storage business now stands at 36.6 million square feet in Greater Phoenix, with 10 million square feet of space delivered between 2012 and 2021. That’s almost 30% of the total self storage inventory, according to our most recent research of development trends.

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Here are a few other highlights for the Valley market, courtesy of RentCafe’s self storage division:

• The Phoenix metro area built the 5th-highest volume apartments during the last decade and was also the 5th-most active metro for self storage construction, adding 10M square feet of new storage space and over 62K new apartments from 2012 to 2021 (almost 30% and 19% of its existing inventories, respectively).

• The peak years for self storage development were 2019 through 2021, coinciding with the peak years for apartment construction.

• Currently, the self storage pipeline counts over 1.6M square feet set to be delivered in the next 2 years.

• In terms of self storage supply, the Phoenix metro area is now offering over 7 square feet per person, much in line with the national benchmark.

• The increased demand for self storage in the Valley, driven by the area’s high levels of in-migration, have pushed rents to around $127 for a standard 10’x10’ unit, up 3.6% year-over-year.

Other highlights of the analysis:

• The self storage sector has seen massive development in the last decade, significantly spurred by the flurry of new apartments coming online all across the country. Roughly 350M sq. ft. of storage space and 3.1M new apartments have been delivered nationally in the last ten years.

• The country’s top three metros for apartment construction of the decade – Dallas, TX, New York, NY, and Houston, TX – are the most active metros for self storage construction as well.

• 58 of the 100 largest metro areas are expanding their self storage inventories at a higher speed than the national average.

• Urban Honolulu, on the other hand, added the least amount of self storage space over the past decade – under 110K square feet – and it remains the country’s most undersupplied major self storage market.