“Unbeknown to most South Africans, the estimated ZAR 2+ billion South African self storage industry currently ranks in 5th position globally in terms of the number of facilities currently trading”, comments Gavin Lucas, CEO of the SASSI Self Storage Group. “The US industry is the global leader, followed by Australia, the UK, Canada and South Africa.” These were the results of the StorAge Self Storage (Pty) Ltd National Research Study August 2007 ®. “The South African self storage industry is highly fragmented and is dominated by small independent operators. It is SASSI’s view that this will start changing over the period of the next 5 years. This will be consistent with recent trends seen in the more advanced self storage industries globally.”

SASSI believes that now is the right time to launch a self storage investment brand that the South African investment public at large will be able to identify with and which will position itself at the premium end of the self storage market. It is the first such company of its type in South Africa and the decision to move forward with it is based on the fact that South Africa shows lower penetration rates than the US, Australian and UK markets.

The N14 Self Storage Facility is the first one to be developed and forms part of an estimated ZAR 125 million being spent on development projects during the next 12 to 18 months. The total cost value of the new store roll-out will be in the region of ZAR 160 million and 30, 000 sqm of space will come on line during the course of the next 18 months, totalling approximately 2, 850 new self storage units. The current development pipeline consists of five new stores which are all at an advanced stage of their planning. In addition SASSI intends securing a further three to five new opportunities in 2008 which will see its pipe-line growing to eight to ten new self storage developments for the year.

Operating stores continue to deliver on key performance indicators. Increased enquiries are resulting in a strong number of new lets. We continue to see growth in occupancy, increased rates per square metre and ancillary sales growth which are all contributing to an uplift in revenues. Despite the fact that the self storage industry would be affected by the downturn in the residential market, now was most definitely the moment to roll out an aggressive but well planned and structured expansion in the South African market. SASSI’s role is to look through current short term market trends and business cycles. There is a strong demand market for the product and it is important for SASSI to position itself to take advantage of that on all stakeholders’ behalves.

SASSI is a self storage based property investment Group. With its head office in Cape Town, SASSI focuses on promoting the development of and investment in institutional quality self storage assets throughout South Africa.
SASSI’s investment strategy is built on that of traditional hotel development models, in that it seeks to retain a significant interest in all new developments. All new self storage facility developments are managed by SASSI’s own self storage management company and brand - StorAge.

SASSI’s unique service offering allows investors an opportunity to invest in self storage developments and participate in capital and income returns as an equal stakeholder with SASSI. Over the past 4 years, SASSI has invested significant resources in researching the international and domestic self storage industry.