Insights from Self Storage Expo Asia
Hippo Self Storage is delighted to have attended the 2025 Self Storage Expo Asia in Tokyo, Japan. Organised by the Self Storage Association Asia, it was the most attended Expo ever! The event drew operators and industry partners from Asia and around the world. It was a fantastic opportunity to gather and talk all things self storage.
On the first day, we visited three self storage facilities in Tokyo. A feature of the industry in Japan is that there are many facilities on tiny land footprints. For example, a StorHub site that we visited occupied a land area of just 450 square metres, which is small by Australian standards. However, this was a multi-level facility with an impressive 266 storage lockers. We enjoyed inspecting a shipping container self storage facility, similar to ours, operated by Hello Storage. One thing that they did differently to us was split some of their 20ft shipping container storage units into two spaces (food for thought!) This site also had a relatively small land area. The theme of compact sites, but more of them, in Japan fits in with the customer’s desire for convenience. They want their storage to be close to home. We see a parallel with our Mordialloc self storage site near Moorabbin Airport, with many of our customers being from the local bayside area.
Many interesting discoveries were made at the Expo, which were of interest for our self storage Mordialloc site. The keynote speaker was Cris Burnam, the CEO of StorageMart, one of the largest self storage operators in the USA. He commented that the three primary drivers for the industry are “lifestyle”, “transitional” and “commercial” customers. Lifestyle customers refer to those who use storage as part of their lifestyle, as if their unit were an extra room in their house. They may be storing, for example, sporting equipment, camping gear or winter clothing. Transitional customers refer to those who use storage temporarily between moving. For instance, when selling their house or travelling overseas. Commercial customers are those storing for business purposes. For example, for document self storage or a place to keep their tools, stock or spare parts. It was noted that the demand from the lifestyle and commercial segments has been strong in the USA whereas the transitional segment has been weak. At our Mordialloc self storage facility, we also have a range of lifestyle, transitional and commercial customers. However, there has not been such a discernible divergence of demand. In any event, with the current interest rate easing cycle underway in Australia, we expect demand for self storage by transitional customers to increase as real estate transactions increase.
Hippo Self Storage very much enjoyed attending the Asian Expo. We look forward to the next one! If you are interested in storing with us or have any questions, please CONTACT US to discuss.