Charleston Ranks #5 in most self-storage space growth in latest study

As metro Charleston’s apartment market surged in the past decade, the business of storing people’s belongings boomed along with it. So much so, that Charleston witnessed an expansion of 49% of its 2010 inventory that resulted in the addition of 2.3M square feet of storage space.

That’s according to the latest RENTCafé self-storage report in which we’ve researched both multifamily and self-storage development trends in the 100 biggest US metros between 2011 and 2020 to find out which places offer the best self-storage options to apartment renters.

Here are other highlights on Charleston’s self-storage and multifamily markets:

• Over 2.3M square feet were added in the past decade to Charleston’s self-storage inventory, surpassing Jacksonville, Greenville, and San Diego.
• The market has grown by 4% each year since 2010, and now offers 8.7 square feet of storage space per capita, above the national benchmark of 7.
• Charleston expanded its apartment market at a higher rate, an increase of almost 60%. The city added more than 21,000 rental units in the last decade.
• The uptick in both self-storage and apartment construction was sustained by the almost 21% growth in population — the seventh-largest share of newcomers compared to 2010 populations among the top 100 metros.
• And how much does it cost to rent a self-storage facility in the Charleston market? This year, a 10×10 storage unit rented for an average of $93 a month. That’s a significant decline of 16 percent over the past 5 years.

Please find the full report together with what experts are saying about the boom in self-storage development, here: