Self storage site selection in the UK: how to test demand before you buy

As at 16 October 2026 the most recent published UK figure we found for how far self storage customers travel comes from the Self Storage Association UK (SSA). In its 2025 survey of 1,253 customers, 41% travelled 15 minutes or less, 60% 20 minutes or less and 79% 30 minutes or less (our sums of its rounded bands). This guide turns that figure and the public data around it into a one-page test of a site.

How far do customers travel to a self storage site?

The SSA’s 2025 report, with a customer survey run in January and February 2025, charts travel time in seven bands. Its 1,253 respondents came from 19 self storage companies, and 73% were domestic customers and 27% business customers. The chart is titled “travel distance to self storage store” and prints minutes; on 16 October 2026 we found no statement of how the customer travelled.

The bands are 5% under 5 minutes, 16% for 6 to 10, 20% for 11 to 15, 19% for 16 to 20, 19% for 21 to 30, 11% for 31 to 45 and 10% for 46 minutes or more. Adding them gives 41% within 15 minutes, 60% within 20, 79% within 30 and 21% beyond 30 (our calculation, from rounded shares).

The SSA writes that few customers travel more than 30 minutes, though the bands above put 21% beyond it. It also says the share travelling 5 minutes or less is half what it was five years ago and that almost twice as many now travel 21 to 30 minutes, so our reading is that people now travel further.

Earlier SSA reports printed travel times too. Its 2023 report says around 62% of customers travel less than 15 minutes, and its 2018 report has 53% travelling 15 minutes or less and 68% 20 minutes or less. The 2025 share within 15 minutes, 41%, is the lowest of the three. As at 16 October 2026 we cannot tell whether that reflects behaviour, who was surveyed or how the question was asked, so we use 2025 only.

On 16 October 2026 we found no travel-time or distance figure in the SSA’s 2026 report materials, which rest on a smaller survey of 232 customers. We do not blend the two editions.

How much storage per person is there?

The SSA’s 2025 report prints 0.94 sq ft of storage space per head of population. Its table shows the 64.3 million sq ft behind that figure includes container sites: 54.13 million sq ft internal and 10.17 million sq ft containers. Without them, the same totals give 0.79 sq ft per head (our calculation).

On 16 October 2026 we found no statement in the report of which population it divided by. Our inference: 64.3 million sq ft over the Office for National Statistics (ONS) estimate for mid-2023 as first published in October 2024, 68,265,209, is 0.942.

The ONS has revised that year since, in 2025 and again in 2026; its September 2025 bulletin implies 68,526,100 (69,281,400 less a rise of 755,300), which gives 0.938. Over the mid-2025 estimate of 69,483,900 it is 0.925 (all our calculations).

The SSA’s 2026 report counts 3,143 stores with 62.4 million sq ft of current lettable area and 67.5 million sq ft of maximum lettable area, and on 16 October 2026 we found no figure per head in it. Our calculation puts 67.5 million sq ft over the mid-2025 population at 0.97, containers included. Do not set that beside 0.94 as a trend, because as at 16 October 2026 we cannot tell whether the two reports count the same thing.

Savills published its own estimate in April 2026, on a different basis from the SSA’s. Its research asks not to be quoted in part or whole, so we link it and repeat none of its figures or wording.

A national average is an average of what exists, not a measure of what is needed. For one catchment, add up the lettable area of its stores and divide by its population, counting containers the same way for every store.

What do the big operators look for?

Big Yellow says it locates stores in “high profile, accessible, main road locations”. Safestore says it buys in dense urban areas where barriers to entry are high, and that its pipeline averages 55,000 sq ft per store. Lok’nStore’s criteria for the year to 31 July 2023 included prominent locations and high visibility.

Those are large urban stores. The SSA puts the average UK store at 22,058 sq ft, and Big Yellow’s 113 stores average about 59,000 sq ft of maximum lettable area (6.7 million sq ft over 113, our calculation). Treat their criteria as context for a smaller site, not a template.

Visibility is a number as well as a sentence. In the SSA’s 2025 public survey, run online by YouGov in January 2025 with 2,055 people, a consistent 70% cited roadside visibility as the top source of awareness of a store. The 2026 report says 69.2%. Among customers, 55% said internet search was how they first learned of their store in 2025.

Two sites show what land can cost a listed operator. Big Yellow paid £16.5 million in 2021 for a Kentish Town site on which it sought consent for 68,000 sq ft, £243 per planned sq ft. In 2025 it agreed to pay £10.8 million for a Bethnal Green site, with consent to be sought for 68,000 sq ft, £159 (our calculations). That is London land only, not a guide to your site. Our cost-to-build guide covers the building.

Planning is the other limit. Big Yellow says consent “can take anything from eighteen months to three years” and that local policy favours housing. Its Old Kent Road site was bought in June 2022, applied for in October 2023 and consented in May 2026, 31 months after the application and 47 after the purchase.

What public data counts the people around a site?

For population, the ONS publishes mid-2024 estimates for small areas in England and Wales (LSOAs and MSOAs, released 7 November 2025). National Records of Scotland publishes data-zone estimates to mid-2024 (1 September 2026, Open Government Licence). NISRA publishes Data Zone estimates for Northern Ireland (11 December 2025); we did not check its licence.

For households, ONS Census 2021 table TS041 gives the number of households in each small area of England and Wales on 21 March 2021, which Nomis offers as a bulk download. ONS and Nomis material may be reused commercially under the Open Government Licence with a credit line.

For movers, the English Housing Survey for 2024 to 2025 says about 1.8 million households in England moved home in the previous 12 months, and around half involved a move into or out of a privately let home. We did not check Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland.

For businesses, the Department for Business and Trade estimated 5.7 million private sector businesses in the UK at the start of 2025, of which 1.151 million had 1 to 9 employees and 4.273 million had no employees. Its counts follow each business’s head office, so they can mislead for one area.

On 16 October 2026 we found no source that sets a minimum population, number of households or drive time for a storage site. Treat any rule of thumb you meet as the writer’s own.

How do you map a catchment and count the stores in it?

In the Ordnance Survey and Department for Transport pages we read on 16 October 2026 we found no free official tool that draws a drive-time area around any point and allows reuse. Ordnance Survey (OS) publishes a guide to drive-time analysis in QGIS using its free OS Open Roads data; you supply the road speeds.

The Department for Transport’s Connectivity Tool Lite covers England and Wales and gives a score, not an area, and the department has decided not to continue producing its journey time statistics, whose latest data are for 2019.

To count stores, OpenStreetMap tags self storage as shop=storage_rental. Its data is free to use with credit under the Open Database Licence, which says that if you alter or build upon the data, you may distribute the result only under the same licence.

One count we ran on 16 October 2026 for the City of Wakefield district found seven features with that tag and one tagged amenity=storage. We could not check it against an independent count, so it shows only what one open map holds.

Search a map by hand and note each store, rather than scraping one. Google’s Maps Platform terms say a customer will not “export, extract, or otherwise scrape Google Maps Content”, and its end-user terms bar mass downloads and using its content to build a business listings database for a substitute service.

Where does planning come in?

A new version of the National Planning Policy Framework (England only) was published on 17 August 2026 and updated on 29 September 2026. It uses policy codes in place of the paragraph numbers older guides cite. On 16 October 2026 we found no text in its economy chapter or glossary that names self storage, so ask your council which policies it applies.

Its policy E2(2) says that where a proposal must show unmet need, decisions consider whether market signals show undersupply, “taking into account the anticipated catchment area” for that type of development. Our reading: the catchment you draw is also the evidence a council may ask for. Our guide to converting a building into self storage covers use classes and building rules.

Planning policy differs in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, and we did not check theirs.

What goes on a one-page test?

On 16 October 2026 we found no professional body that describes what a self storage demand study contains. RICS’s standard on valuing development property says an assessment should consider “supply and demand constraints and the likelihood of obtaining permission”. The Planning Portal’s “feasibility study” judges the chance of planning success against policy, not demand (our reading). The demand test is yours to design.

The table below is one way to do it: eight steps, each with the public source we found. Use a 20-minute catchment because 60% of the SSA’s respondents travelled that far or less, then run it again at 15 and 30 minutes to see how much the answer moves.

Keep a note of the date and source beside every number you write down, as this guide does. A site worth a paid study is one where the people, the stores, the road and the planning all have an answer you can point to. Our business plan guide shows where the result goes.

What does this guide not cover?

• Valuation and returns. We give no price a site is worth and no yield; operators’ hurdles are theirs.
• Other supply estimates. Savills’ research asks not to be quoted, so we link it and use SSA totals.
• Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland planning. We did not check their policies.
• Container sites. The SSA’s space totals include them and we did not split them further.
• The SSA’s 2026 customer data. On 16 October 2026 we found no travel figure in it, and its survey is too small to blend with 2025.
• Advice. This is general information, not planning, legal or investment advice.

Sources

All read on 16 October 2026.

• The Self Storage Association UK’s annual report 2025 and 2026 interactive report, with its 2026 report page, and its 2023 and 2018 reports.
• Big Yellow Group’s results for the year ended 31 March 2026, 18 May 2026, and its announcements of Kentish Town (27 April 2021) and Bethnal Green (15 September 2025).
• Safestore Holdings’ final results, 15 January 2026, and Lok’nStore Group’s annual report 2023.
• The ONS mid-2025, mid-2024 and mid-2023 population bulletins, its small-area estimates and Census 2021 table TS041, with Nomis.
• National Records of Scotland’s small-area estimates and NISRA’s small-area estimates.
• The English Housing Survey 2024 to 2025 and the Department for Business and Trade’s business population estimates 2025.
• Ordnance Survey’s open data products, its drive-time guide for QGIS and Boundary-Line overview; the Department for Transport’s Connectivity Tool and journey time statistics.
• OpenStreetMap’s wiki page for the tag, its copyright page and the Overpass usage policy; Google’s Maps Platform terms and Maps end-user terms.
• The National Planning Policy Framework, its economy chapter and glossary.
• RICS’s Valuation of development property and the Planning Portal’s page on using a planning consultant.
• Savills’ self storage research of 21 April 2026, linked only.