Who uses self storage in the UK? Households, businesses and why they store

As at 16 October 2026, the published surveys put about three in four UK self storage customers in households and one in four in businesses. Businesses take more than their share of the space: the Self Storage Association UK (SSA) puts them at 35% of space in its 2025 report. This guide sets out who customers are, why they store and how long they stay, and where the surveys disagree.

Who uses self storage in the UK?

The SSA’s 2025 report counted 73% domestic and 27% business customers among the 1,253 who answered its survey in January and February 2025. Its 2026 report, with a survey of 232 customers, gives 75.9% and 24.1%. The SSA writes that businesses “take up over a third of the storage space as they tend to take larger units”.

Both listed operators print a split. Big Yellow says businesses are around 20% of the customers in its stores and occupy 36% of its space, generating 32% of storage revenue. Safestore UK’s business customers were 21% of its customers and 37% of its occupied space in the year to 31 October 2025.

Big Yellow’s own room sizes suggest a smaller share. Its business customers average 177 sq ft and its domestic customers 59 sq ft, which on 36% of space makes businesses about 16% of customers (our calculation), so read its 20% as approximate.

Big Yellow adds that most of its domestic customers fall in affluent and urban ACORN groups, such as Flourishing Capital and Up and Coming Urbanites. The SSA’s 2026 survey has 54.7% of customers male and 41.4% female, the rest not stated.

These samples have limits. The SSA’s customer survey went to the main contact on each contract and was voluntary, and it reached customers only through operators that chose to take part, so it is not a random sample (our reading). Big Yellow is London-weighted: by revenue, 75% of its stores are in London and its commuter towns.

Why do households store?

Moving house comes first in the SSA’s 2025 survey. Among domestic customers, 28% were moving and between properties, 24% had no room for items at their residence and 10% needed more space at home. House-move reasons together, including 7% who lacked space in the new home and 5% decluttering to sell, were 40% of domestic customers. The SSA converts that to 30% of all customers using about 75% domestic; at its survey’s own 73% it is about 29% (our calculation).

Life events come next. The SSA found a death in the family was the most common life event (27%), followed by the end of a relationship (14%).

The 2026 survey ranks them differently. It puts no room at the residence first (26.6%), then moving (21.7% and 5.6% in two answers) and an important life event (14.0%). It also says approximately 27% of domestic customers cite a house move, which is those two moving answers added together.

The SSA’s own summary says lack of space at home is the main reason. The 2025 survey put moving first and the 2026 survey put lack of space first, so the safe reading is that the two lead in turn, depending on the year and on how the answers are grouped.

Big Yellow splits its move-ins in the year to 31 March 2026 into four groups: 40% were customers moving home (23% homeowners and 17% households who did not own their home), 13% were decluttering, 35% followed a life event and 12% were businesses. Its results slide splits the life events: 13% students, 5% home improvements, 5% travelling and 12% other.

How long do customers stay?

Business customers stay longer. Safestore UK’s average length of stay for the year to 31 October 2025 was 26.0 months for business customers and 17.3 for domestic ones, about 1.5 times as long (our calculation). Big Yellow says its business customers stay longer too.

Customers also expect it. In the SSA’s 2025 survey, 60% of business customers and 22% of domestic customers expected to stay more than two years. The chart’s last band is labelled “more than 10 years”, but the text on the same page says two years or more, and the bands before it end at 24 months, so we read it as more than two years.

The expectation is not the stay. Of all customers surveyed in 2025, 29% had been in their unit six months or less and 38% three years or more (our sums of the printed bands); the 2026 survey found 39.0% had stayed three years or more.

Big Yellow counts the other way: some 60% of its customers vacate within six months, and the average length of stay of its existing customers is 33 months. Our reading: the first counts people who move in, the second those still there, and a survey of current customers over-represents the long stayers, so both can be true.

On 16 October 2026 we found no churn rate for domestic and business customers separately in the SSA reports or in the Big Yellow and Safestore results we read. The SSA’s statement that business customers create less churn rests on 4% of business uses being temporary, which is not a measured rate (our reading).

How old are customers?

Most are middle-aged or older. In the SSA’s 2025 survey, 61% of customers were aged 45 to 69, and 25% were 55 to 64. The 2026 survey puts the peak at 55 to 64, with 55 to 59 and 60 to 64 at 15.5% each, and under-35s at 8.9%.

The two surveys disagree on direction. In 2025 the SSA said the average age was coming down, with growth at 35 to 50 and fewer customers over 60. In 2026 it titled the section “an ageing customer base”, and its text says the previous peak was 45 to 49 at 15%; its own chart for the year before shows the peak at 50 to 54.

With 232 respondents the 2026 chart moves by a few points on a handful of people, so we show both surveys side by side and do not call a trend.

The 2025 chart also draws a “national” line, and on 16 October 2026 we found no definition of it in the report, so we leave it out.

What kinds of business use self storage?

Most are very small. In the SSA’s 2025 survey, 54% of business customers had one to three employees and 20% had four to ten, though the SSA says larger businesses are over-represented in self storage. About a quarter said they ran the bulk of their business from the unit.

The printed business uses add up to only 58%, so the other 42% is not shown. The largest listed was a holding area for distribution of goods, at 28%, followed by an archive of records (9%), no room at home (8%) and stock for repair or replacement (8%).

Big Yellow describes its business customers as online retailers, B2B traders looking for flexible mini-warehousing, service providers and others. Its average business customer occupies 177 sq ft, and national business customers occupy 5% of its space.

Business customers also visit more. The SSA found 15% of business customers go to their unit daily, while 76% of domestic customers go monthly or less. Business customers take more units: 76% had one unit, against 91% of domestic customers.

What do the differences mean for an operator?

Each group buys a different thing. Households arrive with a trigger such as a move, a death or a renovation, take a small room and pay more per square foot because the room is small: Big Yellow says its domestic customers pay 16% more per sq ft. Businesses take bigger rooms, stay longer and visit more.

Safestore shows an operator steering the mix. Its domestic share of UK occupied space rose to 63% from 59% on stronger domestic demand and the partitioning of larger units, and it describes a more typical 70/30 domestic and business split by space as its aim. Its business occupied space fell 6.2% in the year.

Our reading: the trigger tells you when to be found and the stay tells you what the customer is worth. Our seasonality guide shows when moves peak, and our marketing guide covers reaching each group. The KPIs guide covers how to measure length of stay.

StoreBay records whether each customer is a business or an individual, and you can add “Is this for a business or personal use?” to the questions you ask when someone enquires.

Why do the sources disagree?

The SSA’s two editions disagree on the details, because they come from different surveys of different size. The 2025 edition used 1,253 customers; the 2026 edition used 232 and calls it “a record response”. The table below sets the main measures side by side.

The SSA’s 2025 awareness and “how would you find a store” charts come from a separate YouGov survey of 2,055 people, not from customers. The 2026 edition’s question about how customers found their store is actual behaviour: 42.5% by internet search, down from 55.4%.

The 2026 materials also print two different 27% figures: the press release gives 27% to lack of room at home and 22% to moving house, while the interactive report gives 27% to a house move. Only the SSA can say which it intends.

What does this guide not cover?

• Regions and nations. On 16 October 2026 we found no customer-survey figure split by region or nation in either SSA edition.
• Movers outside England. The English Housing Survey for 2024 to 2025 says about 1.8 million of England’s 25.0 million households moved home in a year, 7.2% (our calculation); we did not check Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland.
• Price by customer type. We did not study how prices differ by age or segment.
• Container and outdoor sites. The SSA’s totals include them, and we did not separate their customers.

Sources

All read on 16 October 2026.

• The Self Storage Association UK’s annual report 2025, customer survey of January and February 2025, and its 2026 interactive report, 2026 report page and press release of 29 April 2026.
• Big Yellow Group’s results for the year ended 31 March 2026, 18 May 2026, with its results presentation, and its results for the year ended 31 March 2025, 19 May 2025.
• Safestore Holdings’ final results, 15 January 2026.
• The English Housing Survey 2024 to 2025: chapter 1, profile of households and dwellings and chapter 3, housing history and future housing.