Site selection has become one of the clearest drivers of self-storage performance. Well-sited facilities are outperforming their peers by 15 to 18 percent in operating metrics and reaching stabilization noticeably faster.
The Three-Part Lease-Up Equation That Sets Strong Assets Apart
The self-storage industry’s site selection framework has grown considerably more sophisticated since 2021 – and that today’s most successful facilities are green lighted on criteria that reflect that higher standard.
Location has always mattered, and now it works best alongside other factors – internet and mobile search presence, investment in technology, and strong management. Strength across all creates a compounding advantage in lease-up performance. The greatest results come when a strong physical location is paired with capable management, intelligent pricing, and effective digital marketing. The upside: a well-located property can lease up as much as a full year faster than a comparable asset in a less favorable location and can reach and sustain a higher performance level over time.
What Site Selection Looks Like in 2026
The criteria developers use to evaluate sites have become more layered than the current supply and traffic-count-focused analysis of earlier cycles. Population growth has emerged as a primary filter. Building into a market that’s growing gives you a real advantage; strong demographic momentum is one of the clearest green flags a developer can look for.
Beyond population trends, submarket-level rent and occupancy data have become the most valuable input in any feasibility analysis. Rather than relying on broad square-feet-per-capita figures that dominated pre-2021 underwriting, developers now benefit from examining where every competitor in a submarket is actually performing on rents and occupancies – real results rather than projections.
The old saturation threshold of 8+ square feet per capita, once treated as a headline oversupply signal, is now one input among many. The saturation level is still a factor, but it’s not as important as a lot of these other layers that you want to look at. Income levels, population trajectory, and achieved rents in the immediate competitive set now anchor the analytical framework.
Competitive pipeline awareness is a critical planning input. If you’re in a market that’s doing okay, it’s starting to perform a little better, you likely can add a facility. But if you see two others coming, you need to really park the bus and take a hard look.
Applying Sharper Criteria as Entitled Land Demand Returns
The market is seeing developers re-entering the market with renewed confidence. With capital ready to deploy, disciplined site selection is the key to translating that momentum into strong results. People are being a little bit more aggressive, particularly more than they were two years ago. That was kind of the market bottom.
Existing incumbents are performing better as supply has moderated, which signals to developers that there may be room to add one more facility in a given market. The distinction is between adding one facility to an improving market and entering a market where two or three others are already in the planning stages. The facilities now demonstrating the strongest recovery are the ones that were well-sited to begin with – a pattern that makes the clearest case for disciplined site selection as the next development cycle begins. Developers looking to apply that discipline can learn more by connecting with the De Jong Self Storage Team at Colliers.
About Tom de Jong:
Tom de Jong is Executive Vice President at Colliers and Founding Principal of the De Jong Self Storage Team. With 19 years at Colliers, a $2B+ transaction record across 32 states, and an SIOR designation, he is one of the most recognized specialists in self-storage brokerage and investment advisory in the United States.
