How much does self storage in London cost?
It’s fair to say that you pay a premium for property of any kind if it’s in London. The city may be home to some of the largest businesses and wealthiest people in the world, but that also means it has some of most expensive property found anywhere on the globe, something the recession has done little to change.
Does self storage in London obey the same rules? The answer is it doesn’t have to. While the capital may be an expensive place to rent space, there’s lots of variety in terms of what you may have to pay.
There are huge savings to be made on London self storage if you’re prepared to shop around and approach it with an open mind, something Storage.co.uk found during a recent investigation:
London self storage: independent or chain?
Very big differences in price for London self storage can be found by shopping around between both the big multiples and the independent firms. Even between this latter group, what they charge can vary significantly by place.
Four independent London self storage firms were chosen at random from the Storage.co.uk database, each in a different part of London, to see how much it cost per week to rent 100 square feet (sq ft) of space with them.
The most expensive part of the city for self storage was South London, where ABC Selfstore in Southwark quoted £74 per week for 100 sq ft. The cheapest, surprisingly, was North London, where Hanama Storage in Muswell Hill said it would only be £35 for 100 sq ft. There was also remarkably little difference between West London, the city’s wealthiest area, and East London, traditionally its poorest: Blue Box Self Storage in Maida Vale said they charge £58 per week for 100 sq ft, while at Attic Self Storage in Bow was only £8 cheaper, at £50.
Admittedly these were random samples of London self storage prices, but they do at least do demonstrate that being prepared to travel to distant areas may be worthwhile if you can find the right price there, especially if you’re storing things you won’t need to visit very often.
This exercise also revealed the huge variety that exists within the London self storage market, perhaps unsurprisingly given it’s the industry’s largest UK and European hub. Different companies offer a remarkable variety of types of self storage, from the standard purpose-built and exterior container units, to pallet self storage, warehouse self storage, mobile self storage, archiving services and all manner of specialist car, boat, caravan and other types of vehicle storage.
Don’t be afraid to spend a while shopping if you need something very specific, or you want to put something a bit unusual into self storage, as the chances are the right option is somewhere out there for you. Any experienced London self storage manager has probably seen everything at least twice already, so they shouldn’t bat an eyelid whatever you try to bring in, as long as it’s all legal and above-board.
Chains dominate London self storage
Of course, while a lot of these small companies exist, London is also the core of the large, brand-name self storage companies like Big Yellow and Safestore. Between them the big companies have branches in just about every part of the city, which are often clustered together on prominent retail parks beside major roads, forming little islands devoted to high-end self storage.
These companies are often presumed to be the most expensive option, but this isn’t always the case. According to its 2010 annual report, Big Yellow charges an average of £28.48 per sq ft a year in its London stores, while Safestore’s annual report says it has a national average of £25.55, meaning it would probably charge about the same as Big Yellow in London.
£28.48 multiplied by a hundred is £2,848, which is what it would cost to rent 100 sq ft for a year. Divide this by 52, and the rental charge per week comes out at £54.77 – actually cheaper than the independent companies we quoted in Maida Vale and Southwark.
Of course, this still means that the costs that build up over the long term are quite high, as they would be at an independent. But what this does show is that the prices quoted by brand name self storage companies in London are often quite reasonable by comparison.
Self storage in London compared
That said, the price comparisons with other parts of the UK are what make any type of London self storage seem expensive. For example, the independent firm Self Storage Tameside, in the Greater Manchester area, says on its website that it would only charge £25 per week for 100 sq ft, indicating that self storage in most parts of London can be at least twice as expensive as self storage in other parts of the UK.
How does self storage compare with other kinds of space rental ‒ accommodation, for instance? What you get for your money with self storage – an empty room, usually unheated and sometimes unlit, with no power connectors – actually compares pretty unfavourably to other types of space that could be rented for similar money in London.
The estate agents Foxtons, for example, are currently advertising a two-bedroom flat in Canada Water, Docklands for £375 per week. Its floor area is 686 sq ft, meaning the price per square foot a week is 55p – which would equate to just £55 per week if the flat was only 100 sq ft in size, actually making it cheaper than a lot of self storage companies.
Of course, a landlord would give you a funny look if you said you wanted to rent their flat to use as a self storage unit – but you’re basically taking on the same kind of financial commitment, so bear that in mind when renting self storage space in London. Perhaps you could be better off living with your stuff.
8 Responses to “How much does self storage in London cost?”
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Nice post, thanks for information and for comparison of Prices I am sure allot of people will be helped out with this post.
When you have decided to rent a self storage facility, how will you contemplate important items to make sure that all your items within the said unit won’t get damaged or stolen?
That’s a nice post. I am sure lots of people get help from here about storage and its cost.
Nice post, related to removal services in London. Professionals are available who help you in moving from one place to another.
This is a very handy post, living space in London is so expensive and finding a relatively cheap storage facility could be a solution to those who have certain things that they don’t use on a regular basis and could be stored away. On the other hand, you could consider throwing the thing away especially if it is something that you’re unlikely to use again and are just holding onto it as you can’t bring yourself to discard it.
Especially at the time of moving/shifting sofas bedrooms at the time we have to look stairs, sizes of doors where we have to enter, in this we damage mostly of our objects, so it’s better to consult with professional.
Nice information. It is very handy to have such a contrast of price.
Different storage companies take different approaches to length of stay and billing. Most storage companies have a minimum duration of a week or month so it is really important to check those terms. If you only need a unit for a few days, or move out part way through a month or week it’s very likely you’ll be paying for days or weeks that you aren’t using.