The Kent self storage market

Kent sits within the South East self storage market. Kent has a population of around 1.9 million and more motorway mileage than any other English county, with the Channel ports of Dover and Folkestone anchoring its freight economy. We arrange acquisition finance, commercial mortgages, bridging, development finance, mezzanine and term debt on storage facilities across the county, tracking 8 storage catchments, led by Dartford, Ashford, Dover, Gravesend and Maidstone.

The market figures below are reported nationally or at regional level by the industry's research sources, attributed to each source, and used as context rather than a Kent-specific measurement. The housing-transaction and planning data is genuinely local and sourced from HM Land Registry and council planning registers.

Storage catchments and operators across Kent

Storage demand concentrates along the A2, A20, A229, M20 J9 and M20 J10 corridors, where road access and passing visibility drive enquiries. Operators with stores across the county include Storage King and Easistore.

Rates, occupancy and yields

Nationally there are 3,143 self storage stores offering 67.5m sq ft of lettable space (SSA UK / Cushman & Wakefield Annual Industry Report, 2026 report), with average occupancy of 74.5% across all stores and 79.6% for mature stores. Average revenue runs at about £33.90/sq ft (South East & East, SSA UK / Cushman & Wakefield Annual Industry Report 2025, 2025 report), and prime self storage yields sit around 5% (Savills, European Self Storage Spotlight, Q4 2025).

Capital values: what storage facilities sell for

What do trading stores actually sell for? The best public evidence comes from the listed operators' external valuations. Big Yellow's London and commuter-town weighted portfolio was valued at £458/sq ft of lettable area and its smaller-format regional Armadillo stores at £185/sq ft (Big Yellow FY2026 results (JLL-valued), Mar 2026), with Safestore's UK estate at about ~£364/sq ft on a derived basis (Safestore FY2025 results (Cushman & Wakefield-valued), Oct 2025). The evidenced span from regional secondary to prime London and the South East runs at roughly £185 to £460/sq ft. These are going-concern values for trading businesses, not vacant-possession property values, and no source publishes a finer regional split, so we treat them as tier benchmarks when appraising a Kent store.

Storage demand signals in Kent

House moves are the sector's biggest demand driver: the 6 Kent towns we track recorded 7,996 residential transactions in the last twelve months on HM Land Registry price paid data. 76% of UK storage demand comes from domestic customers (SSA UK, 2026 report).

Self storage finance in Kent

We arrange the full lifecycle of self storage finance across Kent: acquisition finance and commercial mortgages for trading stores, bridging for sites and auctions, development and mezzanine finance for builds and conversions, and term debt for the long-term hold. Send us the deal and we will come back within one working day.

Self storage market figures are published nationally or at South East level (SSA UK / Cushman & Wakefield annual reports; Savills yield research) and are presented as context for Kent rather than a county-specific measurement. Housing-transaction figures are HM Land Registry price paid data for the towns we track.