National Storage has acquired a foothold in the Sydney self storage market. Currently Australia’s third largest owner/operator of storage centres. National’s operations have previously been focussed in South East Queensland and Adelaide markets where they have 16 centres in operation, with over 90,000 square metres of storage space.
The Belfield site, previously a Tip Top Bakery building, is a Sydney landmark located prominently at the corner of Punchbowl and Benaroon Roads at Belfield.
Currently offering over 450 residential and business storage units with over 4100 m2 of Nett Lettable Area, the Belfield centre also offers secure undercover car and boat storage and a 24 hour access area.
“We are tremendously excited at having embarked on the next stage of our business expansion, by entering the Sydney market.” said Andrew Catsoulis, Director of Acquisitions and Development for National Storage. Over the coming months we will be actively seeking to expand our presence in Sydney through a program of acquisition of existing businesses as well as seeking potential new development opportunities. We consider the Sydney market to be very dynamic, with many potential challenges as well as opportunities.
We intend combining the best operational and marketing aspects of all businesses to create a storage operation that is unparalleled in the Australian market. We believe in transcending traditional boundaries of storage facility management to create tailored storage solutions to suit our customers individual needs.”
Mr Catsoulis said “Having identified the opportunity to acquire the National Mini Storage sites around 2 years ago, our own strategic direction for the self storage business is predicated on the need to achieve geographic spread.
“Our approach has been to consider every opportunity to acquire and purpose-develop sites for self storage purposes, while at the same time seeking to achieve market strength through the acquisition of existing operations.”
The National portfolio encompasses 13 sites in south-east Queensland and three in Adelaide, representing a gross floor area of around 90,000 square metres.
“Our focus will continue to be on delivering a quality service to our customers through the provision of tailored storage solutions, which transcend the traditional approach of providing a storage unit for a fixed price”.
“Demand for self storage space throughout Australia is growing.
“Currently the domestic market accounts for the greatest demand. However, demand from the business sector is steadily increasing as the cost of non-income earning on-premise storage space is identified as a significant business cost,” Mr Catsoulis said. Our society increasingly places a premium on the effective utilisation of our residential and business space with high density living and work environments becoming a normal part of daily life. As a result cost effective, simple storage solutions are becoming increasingly pivotal.”
