We're bursting out of our homes

21/03/2010

It’s a fact that more and more of us are now turning to self storage to store our possessions. According to statistics* British houses have been steadily getting smaller over the last 30 years, with new-builds often unable to provide the storage space needed to accommodate their owners’ needs.

This means that many households have a surplus of possessions that they are increasingly likely to keep at self storage facilities.  In fact, in a survey carried out by storage.co.uk, a website designed to help people find local self storage facilities throughout the country, it was identified that 59% of customers have been using self storage for over two years.  The average time existing customers have been using space is almost 5 years.

Says Angus Hanton, co-founder of storage.co.uk, with 20 years’ experience in the industry, ‘Self storage is certainly a huge growth area. We have seen a surprising increase in demand for storage space in recent years, and what’s more, people are storing their possessions for longer.

‘A relentless increase in the demand for new homes suggests that the role of storage will continue to grow in the years ahead. Important demographic trends – the rise in people of all ages living alone, the high divorce rate and lower incomes after the recession for instance – are driving people toward living in flats like never before. Indeed flats now account for nearly half of all the new build homes in Britain.’

Storage.co.ukhas been designed to respond to a real consumer need to find local and convenient self-storage space around the country. It has a site-finder that tells people where their nearest facility is in addition to providing guidance on calculating the amount of space you need to short films about how to pack and a comic film on what can go wrong.

This is a definitive resource that may even, says Hanton, change the way people think of storage. He says, ‘If you thought storage was boring,  have a look at storage.co.uk and think again.’

*In a survey carried out by the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE), it was found that residences in London and the South East are being built smaller. The survey identified that 57% of people in this region don’t have enough overall storage space.

storage.co.ukprovides:

- a unique and searchable directory of all self storage companies

- a quotation service, which doesn't exist elsewhere, where someone looking for storage space can put in one set of their details and have several quotations sent back to them;

- a blog with interesting articles and lots of material, with actual discussion and regular additions;

- films on the subject  - all informative but both funny and straight;

- a mailing list which sends people special offers on storage space;

- a website built on the most memorable domain name in the sector.

For more information, images or to arrange an interview with Angus Hanton, please contact Justine Gaunt on 0788 7733880