The demise of the backyard shed and the traditional, spacious family home has given rise to one of Australia’s most vibrant and growing industry sectors.
Today, spread around the country is more than 1,000 individual storage facilities encompassing over 2,000,000 square metres of storage space, designed for all those treasured items large and small that simply just can’t fit in our homes or offices.
Equivalent in size to a city of skyscrapers, the amount of space devoted to storage is growing each year as Australia’s population increases and with the advent of smaller living spaces and the national trend to apartment living.
National Storage, one of Australia’s largest storage companies, controls more than 10% of the total storage space available and according to Director of Acquisitions and Development, Andrew Catsoulis, there is no end in sight to the potential for the industry or the company.
“Over the past year alone, we have added the equivalent of a further 10 storage centres of extra space to our portfolio, and in addition to adding new properties, we are focusing on extending the capacity of existing centres to keep up with demand,” Mr Catsoulis said.
“Our most recent extensions centre on our facilities in South Australia. At Reynella, Marion and Klemzig we have added a further 6,000 square metres of storage space, representing an additional 800 new units provided into the Adelaide market, extending the number of individual storage units offered by National Storage in Adelaide from approximately 3200 to 4000,” Mr Catsoulis said.
“This is a trend that we see continuing well into the future, as suburbs gentrify and as governments dictate planning outcomes that promote increased densities, which means less space for items that can range from cars and boats through to books, household items and even marketing materials and business files. We have also incorporated a significant amount of new climate controlled space, specifically to cater for the expanding wine storage market in Adelaide. This space can also be used for storage of other products requiring temperature controlled conditions such as pharmaceutical products, antiques and artwork. This has been an exciting new area of business for us” said Mr Catsoulis.
“The secure surrounds of a storage centre, which can be leased for much less than commercial office space, is a key driver in the strong take-up being experienced from the business sector,” Mr Catsoulis said.
Mr Catsoulis said the company had also recently opened two new state of the art purpose built centres, one at Coolum on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast and the other at Embleton in suburban Perth.
“National Storage now has 46 storage centres in Queensland, Western Australia, New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia, comprising close to 28,000 individual storage units and more than 234,000 square metres of total storage space.”
He said new suburbs were not the only targets for National Storage centres.
“While we are constantly looking at emerging population centres to determine the opportunities for storage centres, we also focus on established suburbs and regions where changes in housing also give rise for the need for central storage facilities,” he said.
Mr Catsoulis said the company had developed a strong investment model which facilitated future expansion, but which had allowed National Storage to focus on its core operation of managing storage facilities.
“While we do own and operate a number of centres ourselves, the majority of the National Storage centres are rolled into the APN National Storage Property Trust which comprises a portfolio of 37 centres valued at approximately $300 million,” he said.
“We then lease back the properties on long term arrangements that provide scope for further growth within each centre over time.”
He said National Storage also focused on innovation within its facilities catering for the changing range of storage needs of customers.
“There is much more to storage than simply providing a shed with a key. There is an increasing level of sophistication in the facilities we offer, which now extends to temperature-controlled facilities for wine and other sensitive goods.
“Across our network of centres, the addition of wine storage facilities has been a boon to our business and our customers. Instead of cases of wine sitting in garages or in cupboards exposed to the ravages of the Australian climate, National Storage can become your own personal wine cellar.” Our intention is to build the first comprehensive network of state of the art climate controlled wine storage facilities across all major cities in Australia and we are well on the way to achieiving this with wine storage facilities in Brisbane, Adelaide, Melbourne, Perth and the Sunshine Coast.”
Mr Catsoulis said National Storage was well positioned to continue to capitalise on the escalating domestic and commercial storage needs of Australia and in 2007 would continue to focus on growth across all states of Australia.
