Spanish Self Storage

There are about 95 Spanish self storage facilities so compared with the UK the market is in its infancy – but it is growing.

Bluespace

One of the most prominent Spanish self storage operators is Bluespace, which has 17 sites and a total of 80,000 square metres of storage rooms.  Their typical storage centre is about the same size as a British store – around 47,000 square feet.

Self storage with Bluespace costs roughly 25 Euros per month per square metre. This equates to about £26 per square foot, which would be at the top end of the UK pricing – but this is for storage in the main Spanish cities. Overall occupancy at Bluespace is said to be about 65%, but at the more mature sites over 80% of storage rooms are let.

Bluespace was a pioneer in Spanish self storage and is still expanding. Perhaps surprisingly, it was established by two foreigners, the Austrian Alexander Ruckensteiner and the Frenchman Arnaud Ripert.

It is now supported financially by Pramerica, an investment fund run by the Prudential Financial Group, and in 2006 it increased its share of the Spanish self storage market by buying the Spanish Easybox stores. There is also an interesting link with the UK’s Big Yellow, as two Big Yellow directors are also directors of Bluespace: Nick Vetch and Jonathan Short.

Some people say the outlook is grim for Spanish self storage with the residential property market flat on its back. Yet at least one Spanish self storage insider is optimistic and says, “we think there is still enough demand out there to fill new self storage units.” According to Bluespace’s website they are expecting to invest 100 million euros in Madrid, Barcelona and Valencia where the total population is over 10 million people.

City Self Storage

Another big player in Spanish self storage is City Self Storage, which has nine facilities, including two in Barcelona. Their website is very upfront about pricing and quotes their prices as 90 euros a month for 5 square metres of storage space, which equates to about £15 per square foot per year.

Spanish self storage isn’t the only market City Self Storage is involved in. The company was set up about 17 years ago and now has self storage operations in seven different countries, with 43 stores. They started in Norway and have a wide footprint in Scandinavia, with self storage facilities in Sweden and Denmark. More recently City Self Storage has expanded into Poland and the Czech Republic.

The geography of Spanish self storage

Catalonia (including Barcelona) is the stronghold of the Spanish self storage market with about 40% of all facilities located in this region.

In the capital, Madrid, there are about a dozen self storage facilities, including Espacio Plus with over 6,000 square metres of space, and Low Box.es with 4,500 square metres. Low Boxes are currently offering a 20% discount on self storage prices for the first year of use.

Spanish self storage also extends outside the capital, where there are many smaller independents, such as Seguro-storage, based near Murcia in southeast Spain. Its director and founder, Arno Otto, has set up an impressive operation but interestingly has produced his website in Spanish, English and Dutch!

The fact that many Spanish self storage websites are in English illustrates the importance of the British ex-pat community, but there are also many self storage companies who are clearly catering to local demand.

There is no doubt that the Spanish self storage is growing, but the recent economic downturn has slowed down the rate of expansion.

3 Responses to “Spanish Self Storage”

1. Paul D Reynolds says:

   August 22, 2010 at 6:51 pm

   Fascianting amount of detail. thank you for sharing your research. One thing was particulalry strking – the huge range in pricing among comeptitors.

2. self storage chester says:

   November 8, 2010 at 8:31 am

   It is evident that market outlook is quite grim at the moment and businesses are mostly competing on price now a days. Same applies to self storage business as well: their business is badly hit by the gloomy real estate market. I think self storage businesses need to find some other niche to enter the market like students or musicians or, if they have got space, people with automobiles, etc etc.

3. Taylor Graham says:

   October 22, 2013 at 2:43 am

   In the capital, Madrid, there are about a dozen self storage facilities, including Espacio Plus with over 6,000 square metres of space, and Low Box.es with 4,500 square metres. Low Boxes are currently offering a 20% discount on self storage prices for the first year of use.