Why Self-Storage Is One of the Busiest Corners of UK Real Estate Right Now
Self-storage has moved quickly from being a secondary asset class to one of the most competitive and strategically important areas of UK real estate.
What’s striking isn’t just the volume of capital targeting the sector, but the speed at which leading real estate consultancies are reshaping their advisory teams to keep pace. Senior hires are being made, specialist teams are forming, and firms are racing to become genuine self-storage experts. We’ve seen Savills, Cushman & Wakefield and Newmark make some serious hires in this space recently. In some instances, full teams have moved across to the other side!
This isn’t a trend driven by speculation — it’s a direct response to client demand.
Why Self-Storage Demand Isn’t Slowing
The fundamentals behind the self-storage market remain exceptionally strong.
UK housing stock continues to shrink in average size, mobility in both residential and commercial markets remains high, and businesses are increasingly operating without long-term fixed space. Self-storage solves a real problem — flexibility.
Unlike many asset classes, demand is driven by everyday life events: moving home, downsizing, growing a business, managing inventory or adapting to change. That creates a resilient income profile that investors trust, even during uncertain economic cycles.
For institutional capital, that reliability is exactly what makes the sector so attractive.
Capital Has Moved from Curious to Committed
What we’re seeing now is not early-stage interest — it’s conviction.
Investors are deploying significant capital into self-storage platforms, development pipelines and consolidation strategies. Portfolio scale matters, operational efficiency matters, and professional advice is critical at every stage of the investment lifecycle.
As a result, advisory mandates are becoming more complex and more valuable — and clients are increasingly selective about who they trust to advise them.
Why Consultancies Are Hiring Senior Self-Storage Specialists
This is where the talent market comes into sharp focus.
Self-storage is not a sector that can be serviced effectively by generalists alone. It sits at the intersection of operational real estate, capital markets, valuation, planning and development. That requires experience — and clients expect it.
Leading consultancies are responding by:
Hiring senior investment and capital markets professionals with direct self-storage exposure
Strengthening valuation teams that understand operational income and platform pricing
Building dedicated alternatives and operational real estate teams
Creating leadership roles specifically tasked with growing self-storage advisory capability
These hires are not opportunistic — they’re strategic. Firms are backing this sector long term, and they need credible people in front of clients.
A Tight and Highly Competitive Talent Market
The challenge? There isn’t an abundance of self-storage specialists in the UK.
Many of the best professionals are already well-positioned, highly valued and not actively looking. Others may have adjacent experience — logistics, operational real estate or alternatives — but need careful assessment and positioning.
This has created a highly competitive recruitment environment where speed, market knowledge and discretion matter. Firms that hesitate often lose talent to competitors who move decisively.
Why This Matters for Hiring Strategy
For consultancies, getting self-storage hiring wrong has real consequences.
Without the right people:
Firms risk losing mandates to competitors with deeper expertise
Growth plans stall due to capacity constraints
Credibility with institutional clients can be undermined
Conversely, firms that invest early in the right talent are already seeing the benefits — stronger client relationships, repeat instructions and a clearer market identity in one of the fastest-growing sectors in UK real estate.
SONDR’s View
At SONDR, we work closely with real estate consultancies building specialist teams across high-growth asset classes, which includes self-storage.
What we consistently see is that the most successful hires are strategic instructions. It’s a small market and not only does word get around, but the majority of experts aren't actively looking. Capital, clear growth plans and an opportunity to make an impact is what gets attention!
As self-storage continues to mature, competition for proven talent will only intensify. Firms that take a proactive, strategic approach to hiring will be best placed to capitalise on what remains one of the UK’s most compelling real estate stories.