Third-Party Self Storage Management UK: How It Works

As at 17 October 2026, UK groups reported management fees of £1,659,090 at Lok’nStore (year to 31 July 2023; 16 managed stores trading at year end) and £1,353 thousand at Big Yellow (year to 31 March 2021; two partnerships in which it held 20% of each). On 17 October 2026 we found no monthly management fee rate in the UK company and trade files we read, and no UK-wide count of stores under third-party self storage management.

This guide is general information, not legal advice and not tax advice, and it is not about franchising. Each rule in it says which nations its source covers, such as England and Wales for the Fire Safety Order and for business rates, and we did not check Scotland or Northern Ireland beyond each source’s own label. A company is named only for what it published or what we could not read, and nothing here ranks managers or endorses one.

A fee for any one store would be set in its management agreement, and the questions to put to an adviser who has that agreement are at the end of this guide.

What is third-party self storage management?

Third-party management means one company runs a store for the people or businesses that own it, and is paid fees: that is how the companies quoted below describe their own arrangements. On 17 October 2026 we found no definition of “managed” that separates a third-party arrangement from running a store remotely in the annual industry reports of the Self Storage Association UK (SSA UK) for 2022 to 2025, on its 2026 report page or on its industry page.

Lok’nStore’s annual report for the year to 31 July 2023 (authorised for issue 27 October 2023) describes its model: “The investor supplies the capital for the project which Lok’nStore manages. Lok’nStore will buy, build and operate the stores under the Lok’nStore brand and within our current management structure”. Its reports for the years to 31 July 2018 and 2021 say the store’s operating expenses are “paid for by the third party out of the store revenue”.

The 2023 report says 64 of its 163 store employees work directly in managed stores, with their employment costs “recharged to the third party owners”. For one managed store its 2021 report names a Management Services Agreement for running the finished store and a Development and Advisory Agreement for advice during the build. It says both are in substantially the same form and commercial terms as its agreements for other managed facilities.

Stor-Age Property REIT, a South African group that owns a UK platform, describes its third-party management platform as a way to “generate additional revenue with minimal capital outlay by leveraging its infrastructure, systems and operational expertise”. Its report for the year to 31 March 2026 lists property management fees from operating its joint venture properties and from managing properties owned by independent operators, developers, private equity and institutional investors.

A manager can also hold a stake. Big Yellow reported managing two property partnerships with outside partners while holding “a 20% investment” in each. Lok’nStore’s 2023 report discloses that its directors hold shares in the owners of three managed stores, which it reports “for transparency”. This guide names no owner and no person.

The SSA UK reports use “remotely managed” for a way of running a store: the 2023 edition speaks of “remotely managed sites with limited staff”, and the 2024 edition of significant stores “that are remotely managed”. That is our reading, and our guide to automated self storage covers unstaffed stores.

Our guide to self storage as an investment covers routes into the sector from owning and operating a site to holding shares. Owning a store that another company runs under a management contract is a further route between them, as the companies above describe it.

On 17 October 2026 we found no sentence in the files we captured that says franchise and management are the same arrangement, or explains the difference.

Who offers it in the UK, in their own words?

In the sources we read on 17 October 2026, four groups described offering it in the UK: Lok’nStore (in reports up to January 2024), Stor-Age (whose report names Management First as its UK platform), Wigwam Storage Management and Engage. What follows is in their own words, and it is not a complete list of managers or a ranking.

• A new store funded by an investor. Lok’nStore’s 2023 report says that for one store in development it would receive “one-off fees for finding and securing the site, development advice and use of the Lok’nStore brand”, then a recurring monthly management fee “as a percentage of revenue” plus a performance fee once returns reach an agreed level.
• Build, sell, then manage. Stor-Age’s 2026 report describes a UK “develop, sale-and-manage-back” model: it builds a property, sells it to an institutional buyer on a forward commitment, then manages it after opening, “earning ongoing management fees”. Our guide to starting a self storage business covers building a site.
• Sell and manage back. On 1 February 2022 Lok’nStore announced the sale of four of its freehold stores to an existing institutional managed-store client, and said it would receive “management and performance fees” for managing them for the new owner.
• A contract for a trading store. Stor-Age’s report says that in September 2025 it secured the management contract for a trading UK store that an investment manager had bought. Our guide to buying a self storage business covers buying a store.
• An earlier launch. A trade-press item of 3 October 2019 reported that a UK operator had launched “a property-management service for other facility operators in the United Kingdom”.

Three SSA UK supplier-directory entries and one manager’s website describe themselves too. The website and the Management First entry belong to one group: the site says its business is “part of Stor-Age Property REIT”, and Stor-Age’s report names Management First as its UK platform. Each is promotional text, which is a claim and not evidence of practice or of market position (read 17 October 2026).

• Wigwam Storage Management describes itself as providing “third party self-storage management services specialising in remotely managed stores”.
• Engage describes itself as providing “third party management and consultancy services to the UK and European Self Storage sector”.
• Management First describes itself as managing “over 100 properties”. On 17 October 2026 the entry did not say what it counts. Stor-Age’s report, which names Management First as its UK platform, gives three counts that differ (set out in the counts section below).
• One manager’s website says its team handles “marketing, customer service, revenue management, and all day-to-day tasks” and that owners receive “a live performance dashboard, monthly P&Ls and structured quarterly reviews”, which are promises on a sales page. It also claims “more than 110 locations” for its operating platform, and on 17 October 2026 the page did not say what that counts.

In a passage on institutional investors, the SSA UK annual industry report, 2025 edition, says their interest “is likely to be facilitated by Management companies” that are “able to act as development and operating partners in order to mitigate risk and manage absorption”. That is the report’s view, not a count, and the sentence names two companies, which this guide leaves out.

On 17 October 2026 we found no sentence naming management companies as development or operating partners in the 2022, 2023 or 2024 editions.

How are managers paid, and what do company reports show?

Lok’nStore’s report for the year to 31 July 2023 names these fees on a managed store: a standard monthly management fee, a performance fee, fees on a successful exit, and acquisition, planning and branding fees. Performance fees may be earned if a store’s EBITDA exceeds agreed thresholds. On 17 October 2026 we found no sentence in the UK company and trade files we captured that states a percentage as the rate of a monthly management fee charged to an owner.

Lok’nStore gives the basis of the monthly fee in words. Its 2023 report says fees are “invoiced monthly based on revenue performance” and, for one store in development, “as a percentage of revenue”. Its 2020 and 2021 reports say “based on revenue”, and its interim results to 31 January 2024 say “calculated as a percentage of revenue”. None of these passages gives the percentage (read 17 October 2026).

On 17 October 2026 the only percentage we found stated as a fee in those files was an exit fee. Lok’nStore’s reports for the years to 31 July 2018 and 2019 say that on the sale of one managed store it will be entitled to “a fee of 5% of the proceeds of the sale (less reasonable selling costs)”.

That is not a monthly rate, and on 17 October 2026 the reports we read did not say whether it is a standard term or applies to later stores.

Lok’nStore prints its fees by component. For the year to 31 July 2023 its table shows base fees of £929,810, administration and compliance fees of £105,000 and performance fees of £434,280, which it adds up as recurring fees of £1,469,090, up 11.9%. Non-recurring fees (construction and advisory £30,000, supplementary £160,000) were £190,000. The total was £1,659,090, down 40.4% from £2,785,056.

The company says non-recurring fees come from sources such as “planning success fees, construction and advisory fees and fees crystallised when an asset transaction occurs”. Its recurring subtotal is the base, administration and compliance, and performance rows added together (our reading of its table).

The swing is in the non-recurring fees. They were £1,471,677 in the year to 31 July 2022, and the results announcement of 30 October 2023 says that in 2022 the group “benefited from one-off asset transaction fees from three stores in the portfolio which did not recur this year”. Our calculation: non-recurring fees were 52.8% of the year’s total in 2022 and 11.5% in 2023.

Our calculation: base fees were 63.3% of the year’s recurring fees, administration and compliance 7.1% and performance fees 29.6%.

A check for anyone opening the 2023 annual report: its table is headed “31 July 2022” over the figures for the year to 31 July 2023. The report’s own text and the announcement of 30 October 2023 show which year they are.

The last fee table in the files covers the six months to 31 January 2024: total £779,594, down 5.1% from £821,607. Shurgard’s Lok’nStore announcements list shows a scheme becoming effective, and the suspension of Lok’nStore Group plc, on 1 August 2024. We did not look for any later fee figure.

Big Yellow’s financial reviews for the years to 31 March 2015, 2016 and 2018 reported “a five year management contract” in each of two property partnerships it managed while holding 20% of each. Its notes give fees earned of £975 thousand in the year to 31 March 2018, £2,143 thousand in 2019, £2,233 thousand in 2020 and £1,353 thousand in 2021.

The 2019 and 2020 figures each include a £1 million performance fee, in the first partnership in 2019 and the second in 2020, and the 2021 report says “No performance fees were due in the year ended 31 March 2021”. Our calculation without the £1 million: £1,143 thousand in 2019 and £1,233 thousand in 2020.

Its 2015 report cited “ongoing management fees of £400,000 per annum” for the first partnership, which is an annual amount and not a rate. The 2022 report describes fee income from the partnerships “up to 30 June 2021” and records Big Yellow buying the remaining interest on 1 July 2021.

Two groups’ accounts also print a percentage that is not a management fee. Their valuer’s assumption for a store’s net operating income includes “a central administration charge of 6% of the estimated annual revenue”, subject to a cap and a collar (Big Yellow’s 2018 notes; Safestore’s results for the year to 31 October 2025). It is an assumption about the groups’ own stores, not a fee charged to an owner.

Stor-Age prints management fees for South Africa and the UK together: 61.8 million rand for the year to 31 March 2026. On 17 October 2026 most lines in its fee table were not split by country, and it gave no UK-only figure for property management fees.

Safestore’s results for the year to 31 October 2025 report management fees from its joint ventures in Germany and Italy of €1.7 million (€0.8 million a year earlier), and on 17 October 2026 we found no UK management fee amount in them. We also found no third-party management income or fee amount in Shurgard’s full-year 2025 results of 26 February 2026 (searched 17 October 2026).

The figure below sets out what each of the five companies printed, and what we did not find on 17 October 2026.

Shurgard’s offer announcement says the income from the managed stores “includes £1.7 million in fees for the year ended 31 July 2023”, the year for which Lok’nStore reported £1,659,090. The announcement does not say how the two figures relate, so this guide does not add them.

A foreign reference: three US annual reports

These are foreign reports, shown for how US companies describe their fees and how many stores they manage for others. Each is a 2025 annual report that includes the company’s annual filing.

• CubeSmart (United States). In its note on related parties it says it provides management services “to certain joint ventures and other related parties” and that “Management agreements provide for fee income to the Company based on a percentage of revenues at the managed stores”. It managed 862 stores for third parties at 31 December 2025.
• Extra Space Storage (United States). Fees are “based on a percentage of revenues collected from stores owned by third parties and unconsolidated joint ventures”, under agreements that “generally have original terms from three to five years”. It managed 1,856 stores for third-party owners at 31 December 2025.
• Public Storage (United States). It managed 362 facilities for third parties and was under contract to manage 84 more at 31 December 2025, and says the business “enables us to generate revenues through management fees”.

On 17 October 2026 we found no percentage stated as a management fee rate in those three reports or on CubeSmart’s management FAQ page, and no sentence in Public Storage’s report that states how its fee is calculated.

How long does a management agreement last?

On 17 October 2026 the only UK term we found stated in the company and trade files we read is Big Yellow’s “a five year management contract” in each of its two partnerships, in its reviews for the years to 31 March 2015, 2016 and 2018. Its 2020 report describes a £1 million performance fee due “for the performance of the fund over its initial five-year term”.

On 17 October 2026 we found no notice period, termination right or renewal term for a management agreement in those files. Two nearby items are not terms. Lok’nStore’s 2018 and 2019 reports mention “a backstop date of 2022” for one store, when a sale or a valuation payment must be made, and a manager’s FAQ says most integrations “take two to three months”, which is a start-up time.

The foreign reference above has one general range: Extra Space Storage says its agreements generally have original terms of three to five years.

How many UK stores are run by third-party managers?

On 17 October 2026 we found no count of third-party-managed self storage stores across the UK in the SSA UK annual industry reports of 2022 to 2025, its 2026 report page or its industry page.

The only count-like hit is a league-table label for one brand: the 2022 edition lists it at 37 stores “including 7 managed or franchise stores”, and the 2023 edition (34 stores) says “including managed or franchise stores”. On 17 October 2026 neither edition said whether managed and franchise are the same arrangement, or how many stores are of each kind.

The 2024 and 2025 editions changed the table headings to “total space under ownership or management” and “total stores under one brand”, and on 17 October 2026 neither table separated managed stores.

The counts that exist come from the operators, on bases that differ, so none is added to another. Lok’nStore counted managed stores trading at 31 July: 8 in 2018, 11 in 2019, 12 in 2020, 11 in 2021 and 16 in both 2022 and 2023. Its 2023 store table also showed 2 secured pipeline managed stores, 18 in all.

Shurgard’s offer announcement of 11 April 2024 says the acquisition “brings with it income from 17 stores under management contract with one management contract store in the pipeline”. Lok’nStore’s interim results explain the gap from 16: it “manages 17 stores for third-party owners”, including one that opened in February 2024.

Stor-Age’s report for the year to 31 March 2026 gives three counts:

• 20 properties in the UK on its platform (Our Business section).
• 21 on its third-party platform at the year end, seven in South Africa and 14 in the UK (chief executive’s report).
• 28 managed properties, 8 in South Africa and 20 in the UK (property table).

On 17 October 2026 the report did not reconcile the three counts.

Safestore’s results for the year to 31 October 2025 give no count of UK stores managed for others, and Shurgard’s full-year 2025 results give no count of stores managed for others (both searched 17 October 2026).

The SSA UK website says “Around 30% of UK self storage facilities are owned or managed by large operators (operators managing 10 or more sites)”. That is a share on an owned-or-managed basis, and on 17 October 2026 the page gave no count of managed sites. For the size of the sector as a whole, see our UK self storage industry statistics.

The 2024 and 2025 editions’ operating-expense charts carry a bar labelled “management costs”. On 17 October 2026 we found no definition of the term in either edition, so this guide prints no figure for it.

Who is responsible for what at a managed store?

On 17 October 2026 none of the sources below said who holds these roles at a store that a manager runs for an owner. Each rule turns on the facts of the arrangement, so each entry says only what its source says.

• Data protection roles (UK GDPR). The ICO says a controller determines “the purposes and means of the processing of personal data”, a processor “processes personal data on behalf of the controller”, and an organisation “is not by its nature either a controller or a processor”. The role follows the processing activity (Articles 4(7) and 4(8)). We did not check the ICO pages nation by nation.
• The written contract. The ICO says that every time a controller uses a processor “there must be a written contract that binds the processor to the controller” (Article 28(3)). Every ICO page we used carries a banner saying “this guidance is under review and may be subject to change”, because of the Data (Use and Access) Act.
• Employees (TUPE). Regulation 3 of the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2006 covers a “service provision change”, where activities pass from a client to a contractor, between contractors or back to the client. GOV.UK says only employees “who can be clearly identified as providing the service being transferred” are protected.
• TUPE and the nations. The section is labelled U.K., while its test for a grouping of employees speaks of those “situated in Great Britain”. We did not check Northern Ireland’s own TUPE rules.
• “Trader” in consumer law (United Kingdom). Section 2(2) of the Consumer Rights Act 2015 includes a person acting “through another person acting in the trader’s name or on the trader’s behalf”, and section 225(3) of the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 reaches a person acting on a business’s behalf. Both are labelled U.K.
• Fire safety (England and Wales). Article 3 of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 defines the responsible person, and article 5(3) puts the duties on every other person who “has, to any extent, control of those premises so far as the requirements relate to matters within his control”. Our licences guide names the fire law of Scotland and Northern Ireland.
• Business rates (England and Wales). Section 43(1) of the Local Government Finance Act 1988 makes the ratepayer the person who “is in occupation of all or part of the hereditament” (the property being rated), and GOV.UK says business rates are “handled differently” in Scotland and Northern Ireland. On 17 October 2026 neither mentioned managers or agents. Our guide to business rates for a storage business covers England.
• Goods left behind (England, Wales and Northern Ireland). Section 12 of the Torts (Interference with Goods) Act 1977 speaks of “a bailee” (someone holding another person’s goods) who can be entitled, against the person who left them, to sell them if it has given the Schedule 1 notice, or failed to trace that person after reasonable steps, and is reasonably satisfied that the person owns them.
• Goods left behind and managers. On 17 October 2026 we found no mention of a manager, or of a bailee’s agent or employee, in section 12 or Schedule 1, apart from an exception for a “mercantile agent”. Our guide to abandoned storage units and the Torts Act covers how an operator sells uncollected goods.

One manager’s own FAQ says existing on-site staff “will be invited to join” its team, with its HR specialists handling “the entire transfer process”, and does not mention TUPE (read 17 October 2026). Our guide to buying a self storage business covers staff when a business is bought.

On 17 October 2026 we found no GOV.UK or HMRC page on the VAT treatment of a fee charged for managing a self storage site. On 17 October 2026 we searched GOV.UK for the phrases vat management fee self storage and vat management services storage business and read the first page of results for each, and we read one HMRC manual page, on managing agents for property; we searched no other HMRC manual.

Our entry on VAT on self storage covers the supply to the customer.

On 17 October 2026 we also found no source, among the company, trade and manager-website files we captured, that says third-party management of a self storage site is, or is not, regulated, authorised, licensed or VAT-exempt.

Whose licence does the customer sign at a managed store?

On 17 October 2026 we found no sentence, in the company, trade and manager-website files we captured, that says which party the customer’s licence or contract is with at a store that a manager runs for an owner.

The one customer contract these files describe is Lok’nStore’s: its 2023 report says it provides services to its customers under “contracts for the provision of storage services”, and says these confer no property rights. This guide generalises nothing from it. Our entry on the storage licence agreement explains the licence itself.

Which party is named as licensor on a managed store’s agreement is a question for an adviser who has the management agreement in hand.

What does this guide not cover?

This is not a complete account of the law or of any arrangement.

• Who holds each role. Whether a manager is a controller, a processor, a trader, an employer, a responsible person or a rating occupier in any arrangement is not covered. An adviser would have to read the actual agreement.
• Tax. The tax treatment of a management fee, and the owner’s own tax, are not covered.
• Contract law. The terms of a management agreement and the law that governs them are not covered.
• Scotland and Northern Ireland. Not checked beyond each source’s own label.
• Money held for customers and other duties. Deposits and other money held for customers, and health and safety duties beyond the Fire Safety Order, are not covered, because this guide reads no source on them.
• US companies. Three US annual reports are shown as a foreign reference. We did not capture an annual report from National Storage Affiliates, so no other US company is covered.

Questions to put to your adviser

• Solicitor: which party is named as licensor on the customer’s agreement at a managed store, and does the management agreement say who may sign or enforce it?
• Solicitor or Acas: is a handover to a manager a service provision change under TUPE, and which employees are protected?
• Data protection adviser or the ICO: who is the controller and who the processor for customer records, and is there a written contract between them?
• Accountant or HMRC: is VAT charged on the management fee, and how are the fees treated in the owner’s accounts?
• Council rates team or the Valuation Office: who is in rateable occupation of the site?
• Fire risk assessor: who is the responsible person for the premises, and who else has control of any part of them?
• Solicitor: may a manager give the notices for goods left behind in the owner’s name, and who is the bailee?
• Broker or solicitor: who arranges and pays for cover on the building and on customers’ goods, and who is named on it?
• Your adviser, with the management agreement in hand: which of the store’s income is the fee charged on, is there a minimum fee, which reports does the manager owe the owner and how often, and which term and notice apply?

Sources

All read on 17 October 2026.

• Lok’nStore Group plc, as hosted on Shurgard’s investor site: annual reports for the years to 31 July 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023 (authorised for issue 27 October 2023); the announcement of 1 February 2022; the preliminary results of 30 October 2023; and the interim results to 31 January 2024.
• Shurgard: the offer announcement of 11 April 2024, the full-year 2025 results of 26 February 2026 and its Lok’nStore announcements list.
• Big Yellow Group PLC: financial reviews for the years to 31 March 2015, 2016, 2018, 2020, 2021 and 2022; and notes to the accounts for 2018, 2020 and 2021.
• Stor-Age Property REIT: Integrated Annual Report 2026 (year to 31 March 2026), Our Business and Our performance.
• Safestore Group: results for the year to 31 October 2025, announced 15 January 2026.
• SSA UK: the publications page, which lists the 2026 report and the earlier annual industry reports (we read the 2022 to 2025 editions and the 2026 report page); Size of the industry; supplier-directory entries for Wigwam Storage Management, Engage and Management First.
• Trade press and a manager’s website: Inside Self-Storage, 3 October 2019; the manager’s home page and FAQ page.
• Foreign reference, annual reports for 2025: CubeSmart, Extra Space Storage and Public Storage, and CubeSmart’s management FAQ page.
• Data protection and employees: the ICO’s guidance on controllers and processors, how to determine the role and when a contract is needed; GOV.UK’s business transfers, takeovers and TUPE; the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2006, regulation 3.
• Consumer law, fire, rates and goods: the Consumer Rights Act 2015, section 2; the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024, section 225; the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, article 3 and article 5; the Local Government Finance Act 1988, section 43, with GOV.UK’s business rates overview; the Torts (Interference with Goods) Act 1977, section 12.