Self-Storage REITs Remain Appealing
March 24, 2017 | by Michele Lerner | REIT.com
Following a banner year in 2015, self-storage REITs cooled off in 2016. Returns for the sector were down 8.14 percent for the year, compared with an increase of 9.3 percent overall for the FTSE NAREIT All REIT Index.
However, executives and analysts point out that the underlying fundamentals of this recession-resistant sector remain appealing.
“Self-storage REITs likely had as good a year, if not better, in 2016 than the preceding two or three years in terms of average occupancy rates, same store sales, net operating income (NOI) and funds from operations per share,” says Christopher Marr, CEO of CubeSmart (NYSE: CUBE). “However, our share prices had the worst performance in as long as I can remember. Our previously outstanding rates of internal growth started to slow during the second half of the year, and that deceleration worried investors.”