National Storage REIT Continues Its Acquisition Strategy Regardless of the Pandemic

Acquiring and developing self-storage centres in a fragmented self-storage industry in Australia and New Zealand is a key part of National Storage REIT’s strategy. National Storage operates under a REIT structure, with the consolidated group comprising a shareholding in National Storage Holdings Limited and a unit in National Storage Property Trust. We believe it’s at the higher-growth, riskier end of the REIT spectrum. Short lease terms provide it with levers like dynamic occupancy and rental price management to generate earnings. But, shorter rental agreements and reliance on its acquisition strategy to grow earnings make it more sensitive than the average passive REIT to macroeconomic factors, particularly housing turnover, the availability of capital, and population growth. Its long-term prospects attracted the interest of three separate non-binding proposals to acquire the REIT, though they were all retracted by late February 2020.