Warburg-Backed StorHub Buys Three Sydney Self-Storage Facilities for $72M

Asia Pacific self-storage operator StorHub Group has acquired a trio of Sydney facilities valued at more than A$110 million ($72.6 million), as the Warburg Pincus-backed company continues to expand after entering Australia earlier this year.

The deal marks one of the largest transactions in Australia’s self-storage industry in recent years, Singapore-based StorHub said Tuesday in a release. With the latest buys, the platform has 11 facilities in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, including four in operation and seven to be opened in the next few years, the company said.

The three newly purchased assets are located in the suburbs of Homebush, Forestville and Revesby and provide more than 18,000 square metres (193,750 square feet) of net lettable area across nearly 2,000 storage units. Developed and owned by local firms Trumen and Norman Property Partners and managed by Wilson Storage, the facilities will transition to StorHub’s management and branding.

“The Australian market presents significant opportunities for StorHub, driven by strong population growth, rising housing costs in metropolitan areas, and the increasing need for decluttering in the hybrid work environment post-pandemic,” said StorHub CEO Raju Ruparelia, who joined the company from the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan in April.

Growing Aussie Portfolio

StorHub announced its entry into Australia in March with $300 million in equity commitments to support its Down Under business. The Aussie platform was seeded with five assets with a total gross floor area of 56,210 square metres.

The largest of the three new facilities, situated at 128 Milperra Road in the southwestern Sydney suburb of Revesby, offers 6,354 square metres of NLA across 621 storage units. The site at 201 Parramatta Road in the Inner West suburb of Homebush features 5,648 square metres of NLA across 698 units, and 11 Cook Street in northern Sydney’s Forestville provides 5,170 square metres of NLA across 667 units.

“We are pleased to incorporate these well-located self-storage facilities into our portfolio enabling us to offer reliable and secure storage solutions to a broader customer base,” said StorHub Australia CEO Simon DeGaris. “With a talented team on the ground, we believe StorHub is well-positioned to accelerate its growth trajectory in Australia.”

The Aussie buildout adds to StorHub’s existing footprint of 655,000 square metres across 480 locations in Singapore, Japan, Malaysia, South Korea, mainland China and Hong Kong. The group has serviced nearly 61,000 customers to date and holds portfolios with a gross asset value of $1.7 billion, it said.

Mini-Sheds Attract

Australian self-storage investment activity totalled A$95 million in the year to the end of March, easing from pandemic-era peaks that saw 12-month volumes exceed A$1 billion, according to research by Ray White Commercial.

“The fall in activity is indicative of the overall decline in investment activity across the commercial market, driven more so for the industrial sectors by the reduction in quality assets coming to market than reduced investment demand,” said analyst Vanessa Rader.

Australia’s mini-shed market continues to attract global investors like GIC, with the Singaporean sovereign fund having formed a joint venture with ASX-listed National Storage REIT to develop and operate self-storage centres in the country, Mingtiandi reported in June.

GIC and NSR plan to deploy A$270 million ($178.7 million) in total capital during the first 12 to 18 months of the partnership, known as the National Storage Ventures Fund, which is seeded with 10 assets sourced from NSR’s existing development portfolio.