One of the most common questions we receive from people new to the storage business is “how do I price my space”? 

Alas, there is no one magical answer to this.  The value of your space will be affected by size, ease of access, security and more.  Also, since this is a person-to-person business, you may opt to price lower to help someone out who’s fallen on hard times, or higher if you’re in the fortunate position of having several potential tenants competing for your place.

As we’re dealing with property, consider location, location, location!  How easy can prospective tenants get to your place?  Is your facility well served by public transit?  Are taxis relatively inexpensive?  Do you have a place to park outside?  Remember, some tenants will store their possessions with you, happy not to see them for months on end.  Others may keep their suitcases with you and have to travel frequently.  Either way, they need to physically get their possessions to you someone.

Within your home – say – are you renting out an easily accessible room on the  ground floor?  Or is it an attic up a couple of flights of steep steps?  Will tenants be able to move their items up and down easily?

In the UK, properties are rented out on a per week or per month pricing basis.  A common rule of thumb for renting out a residential property is as follows: the cost per week should be 1/1000th of the value of the property.

So, if the property is valued at £300,000 then it should rent out at £300 per week.  This would be the same if it was a 5 bedroom house valued at £300k in the north of England, or a studio apartment in Central London with a book value of £300,000.  In both cases, the weekly rental could be similar.

Taking accurate measurements of your space will help you market it

Clearly, you won’t be renting out the entire property – maybe just a small space like a spare bedroom or attic.  Let’s say this space was 50 sq feet and your entire property was 1,000 sq ft.  The space you’re renting out if 5% of your property. 

If your home is worth £300,000 and you’re renting out 5% of it – or the part that’s worth £15,000 – you could apply the weekly pricing rule above and offer your property at £15,000 / 1,000 = £15 per week.

So, to recap:

1/ take the space you wish to rent out as an overall percentage of the property you live in
2/ apply that percentage to the current value of the property you live in
3/ divide that amount by 1,000 and this becomes your weekly rental rate

Of course, you’ll want to take into account other factors.  Being close to transport, having locks and other security on the space and generally having a clean and presentable unit might bump up the value. 

Ultimately, the value is whatever you negotiate with your prospective tenant, so do use the above as a guide rather than hard-and-fast rule.