Figures show that more than 100 new storage complexes have opened in British towns and cities in the past three years.Figures show that more than 100 new storage complexes have opened in British towns and cities in the past three years.At least, that is the call from a new company urging space-squeezed thirtysomething renters to accept that they cannot afford a home with enough cupboards in today’s housing system and instead sweep their clutter into a rented lock-up.
But the Generation Rent campaign group has now warned that far from being a lifestyle choice that could boost wellbeing, the storage boom should be seen an “indictment of our housing crisis”. This growth in storage sites is being driven by record rises in private rents and increasingly cramped housing; more than 500,000 rented households in England lived in officially overcrowded homes in 2022. The average UK rent increased by 9.2% in the past year, according to the latestfrom the Office for National Statistics, the equivalent of an extra £1,300 a year on the average rent in England.
The location of Hold’s first branch, on a north London street that has been described as the “golden mile” of self-storage owing to the large number of new sites, embodies that system failure. It stands on the boundary of the boroughs of Camden and Islington, where average monthly rents are £2,672 and £2,384 respectively, about double the UK average.