Why Your Best Self-Storage Customers Are Getting Harder to Find (And 4 Ways to Fix It)

Sep 10, 2025

The UK self-storage market hit £1.2bn this year. Revenue per square foot climbed 6%. So why are occupancy rates dropping?

Simple: your customers can't find you when they need you most.

Half the population still doesn't know their local storage exists. Only 10% are actively considering it. Meanwhile, according to the SSA Annual Report 2025 you've got 64.3m sq. ft. of space (up 7.2% this year) and occupancy sitting at 75% instead of the 85%+ you need to sleep well at night.

The problem isn't demand - it's timing and targeting.

The Four Moments That Matter in 2026

Your best customers aren't browsing for storage on a quiet Tuesday. They need it now because life just happened. Miss these moments and you're competing on price instead of convenience.

1. The Moving Conundrum (44% of your revenue)

Home completions jumped 4% in July - that's 101,070 households in one month who needed storage before, during, or after their move. According to our August data, house sales in the UK are 15% higher than last year. But most operators are still running generic "storage available" ads instead of targeting the actual moving timeline.

The opportunity: Set up trigger-based campaigns for houses just listed, under offer, or recently completed. These people aren't price shopping - they're shopping because they must.

2. Life Hits Hard (9% but growing)

Our data consistently shows that a bigger proportion of movers in 2025 are in the older life stages – those over 45 years old accounted for 42% of all homemovers, whilst pensioners made up nearly 25%. Older movers often downsize from large homes and need storage for belongings they wish to keep. They also tend to accumulate more belongings, from furniture to family keepsakes. It’s important to consider the demographics of homemovers, especially during challenging life events like bereavement, divorce, and elderly care. According to Safestore and Currie Easy Safe Store, these customers need storage for months, not weeks, and they'll pay premium rates for hassle-free service. They're also invisible to traditional marketing because they're not Googling "storage near me" - they're Googling "what to do with mum's furniture."

The opportunity: Partner with solicitors, funeral directors, and care agencies. Offer "breathing space" packages with flexible terms.

3. The Micro-Warehousing Revolution (25% of customers - and growing fast)

This is where the residential and business markets converge, and it's your growth opportunity.

SME incorporations might be down 10%, but dissolutions are up 9.6%. That's not just business churn - it's the rise of the home-based entrepreneur. E-commerce micro-merchants selling on Amazon, eBay, or Instagram are outgrowing spare bedrooms faster than they can afford proper warehousing.

Sub-50 sq. ft. lockers are growing at 8.2% annually, driven by people who need more than a cupboard but can't justify a warehouse. London's population push toward 10 million by 2030 means even smaller living spaces, making external storage essential for both homes and home businesses.

Your customers are the same people at different life stages. Someone storing belongings during a house move might later rent a second unit for their Amazon FBA business. Older movers downsizing from family homes (42% are over 45) often need both personal storage and space for selling inherited items online.

The opportunity: Create "business starter" packages - smaller units with added services, priced between residential and commercial rates. Market them as stepping stones to traditional warehousing, not permanent solutions. Many customers will use both personal and business storage simultaneously.

4. Seasonal Opportunity (The Data-Driven Wins)

Students and seasonal businesses are the obvious targets, but there's a bigger opportunity hiding in plain sight: predictable residential patterns you can map and target months in advance.

Combining residential market data with audience profiling reveals exactly which household types move when, where they're moving to, and what storage needs they'll have. Young professionals in "Urban Cohorts" cluster their moves around job cycles (January, September). "Suburban Semis" families move during school holidays. "Empty Nesters" downsize predictably after major life events.

You can predict not just when people will move, but what type of storage they'll need.

The opportunity: Use residential market data to identify high-propensity postcodes 3-6 months before peak moving seasons. Layer profiling to predict storage duration and requirements. Pre-market to these households with tailored packages before they even start house-hunting.

A 4 Pronged Attack

Based on the data, here's what actually works:

1. Use Moving Timeline Data to Target by Stage

Set up campaigns targeting households at specific stages: just listed (decluttering demand), under offer (between-homes panic), exchange completed (post-move overflow). Use residential market data to identify high-propensity postcodes and time your outreach. The data shows these customers convert at 3x higher rates than generic "storage available" ads.

2. Layer Audience Profiling onto Seasonal Patterns

Don't just target "spring movers" - target specific household types when they predictably move. Urban professionals in January (job changes), families in July-August (school moves), and empty nesters in autumn (downsizing decisions). Profiling data tells you which demographics need short-term bridging vs long-term storage, letting you tailor pricing and terms before they even contact you.

3. Create Cross-Market Packages Based on Life-Stage Data

Use demographic insights to identify customers likely to need both personal and business storage. Target postcodes with high concentrations of 35–55-year-olds (peak age for side-hustles), recent movers (storage demand), and specific segments like "Suburban Semis" (family homes with spare-room businesses). Position "Home & Business" packages as complete solutions.

4. Pre-Market Using Predictive Residential Data

Instead of reacting to enquiries, use residential market data to identify households 3-6 months before they're likely to move. Target them with educational content about storage during moves, then retarget with specific offers when they actually list. This positions you as helpful advisors, not desperate vendors, and you capture demand before competitors even know it exists.

The Bottom Line

Your market is worth £1.2bn and growing. Revenue per square foot is climbing. But occupancy is softening because operators’ marketing strategy is lagging behind the market dynamics.

Stop advertising storage. Start solving problems at the exact moment people have them.

The customers are there. The demand is proven. The question is: will they find you when they need you, or will they find your competitor who happened to target them at the right moment?

Want to meet customers at the exact moment they need storage? MoverAlerts tracks 99.6% of home moves and can pinpoint households at each stage of the moving process.

Get in touch for a demo of trigger-based targeting that actually works.

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