NEW YEAR, NEW GOALS, NEW INVESTMENT MARKET

As the New Year begins, we are seeing the transaction market show signs of equilibrium which have not happened in the last few years. It appears that buyers have regained confidence; they are being more disciplined with their assumptions and they are willing to move forward with acquisitions that are pushing the envelope of historical underwriting parameters. This is largely due to the increased sophistication of many operators and the overall perception of lower risk in the self storage market today. As seen in the chart below, self storage REIT returns outperformed all other REIT property types last year. The chart is just a snapshot of how the overall industry performed over the last 12 months, but it has added fuel to buyers’ confidence which will continue through 2012…