Forget about gym memberships and juicing habits. A new necessity for enhancing personal health is self-storage units.
At the very least, this encourages space-strapped renters in their 30s to accept that today’s housing system means they can’t afford a house with enough cupboards, and instead lock the clutter into their rental property. This is a call from the new company to urge Up to clean up.
Hold, which has five storage sites in London, says spending £270 a month on locking your door is a lifestyle choice that “promotes a sense of calm and relaxation” and even promotes mental health. I am trying to convince the head of the household that this is possible.
Marketing strategies are on the rise, with over 100 storage facilities opening in UK towns and cities in the last three years and figures showing the sector now generates revenues of £1 billion a year. Masu. More and more facilities are offering common areas, hot desks, and creative studios as cozy extensions of your home.
But the Generation Rent campaign has now warned that the storage boom should be seen as an “indictment of the housing crisis” rather than a welfare-enhancing lifestyle choice.
Ben Toomey, CEO of Generation Rent, said: “The emergence of self-storage warehouses everywhere is not going to go far in solving our problems.” “Housing is the foundation of our lives, so storage containers may be the perfect metaphor for how government inaction is blinding us to rental housing.”
More than three Canary Wharf towers, or the equivalent of around 6,000 two-bedroom apartments, have opened in the UK in the past year as new self-storage space, according to an industry report from property firm Cushman & Wakefield. . The sight of storage complexes opening near small new-build flats is becoming one of the dark ironies of Britain’s struggle to provide adequate housing.
This increase in storage space is being driven by record rises in private rents and the shrinking of housing. It has been announced that by 2022, more than 500,000 rented households in the UK will officially be living in overcrowded housing. Average rents in the UK have increased by 9.2% in the past year, according to the latest figures from the Office for National Statistics. This equates to an additional £1,300 per year in 2022. Average rent in the UK.
Overcrowding means children sharing bedrooms with adults and, in some cases, beds with each other. Family arguments increase. Teens having trouble doing their homework. A study by the National Housing Federation found damage to physical and mental health.
“People are living on top of each other and it’s fundamentally unhealthy,” said Frédéric de Rickman de Betz, founder of Hold, who has previously tried to get homeless people to live in units. He said he discovered. “Farewells are very important.”
Hold tells potential customers: Many of us feel priced out, shut out, and trapped. That’s a fact. Less space means less quality of life. How we feel about our personal and work spaces has a lot to do with our well-being. We all need more room to breathe, live and grow. ”
The location of Hold’s first branch, on a north London street described as self-storage’s “golden mile” due to its large number of new locations, embodies that systemic failure. The property is located on the border of Camden and Islington, with average monthly rents of £2,672 and £2,384 respectively, almost double the UK average.
The Guardian visited the first branch this week and found Vincent, a professional drummer, practicing in a small, soundproofed unit because he can’t perform in his apartment. Another woman organized a charity library that was too large to be kept in her home.
Held’s approach seems to be based on the decluttering movement pioneered by Marie Kondo, who claims that cleaning out your belongings can help you “reset your life.” Hot desk space, Wi-Fi and a music studio available for rent are also being installed as customers are spending more time in the warehouse.
Tenants at other complexes have previously used the units as workshops for their woodworking hobby, temporary libraries to run their eBay businesses and even standard storage for surplus clothing and furniture, the Guardian said. told. Some said seeing all their belongings in one place gave them a “punch-like” satisfaction, while others said it allowed them to “live a little life” in their van or car. .
Despite aiming to attract younger customers, most self-storage users are between the ages of 50 and 70, and they often turn to self-storage because they need to store furniture and belongings they inherited after a family bereavement. .
Philip McAuley, head of self-storage at Cushman & Wakefield, said: [operators] We’re trying to spread that to Millennials. It’s a long-standing London problem. Apartments are getting smaller, and with interest rate inflation, you can no longer afford two beds and have to buy one. On the other hand, [renting] Self storage. “
His report predicts “an increase in lifestyle customers…long-term residential customers who use self-storage units purely as their own room away from home, storing a variety of items at different times in their lives.” did.
But self-storage is not the answer to the housing crisis, Toomey said. He called on the government to “act to put a stop to soaring rents by building more homes and properly funding councils to crack down on landlords who profit from overcrowding.” Ta.
