SteelStorage

The self storage industry in the Middle East is still in its infancy with the main activity taking place within the GCC states (The Cooperation Council for the Arab states of the Gulf) which is made up of Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman and the United Arab Emirates. 

 

The largest city within the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Dubai, holds a population of approximately 2.3 million and rising. The city has witnessed a construction and tourism boom over the last 5 years resulting in property appreciations and a high demand for land. There are currently eight self storage facilities in Dubai covering a total of approximately 120,000 sq ft net lettable. This gives an area of 0.05 sq ft of self storage per person compared with 0.47 sq ft in the UK. Many of these facilities differ from the “traditional” self storage facility seen in the US, Australia and Europe in terms of the materials used and the services offered. Labour is often included in the offering of these facilities due to low labour costs within the region.

 

Steel Storage Middle East LLC & Core Construction Company Co LLC have broken ground on what the owners believe to be the world’s largest purpose built self storage facility. Big Yellow FZ LLC; a franchise of Europe’s leading  Self Storage operator Big Yellow Group PLC has chosen the International Media Production Zone in Dubai as the home of this mammoth facility which is geared towards operating as a hub for residential/commercial/industrial storage for both international and local users. The facility has five separate buildings, with four two-level structures and a high-bay logistics building. Ultimately boasting a staggering 2879 storage units, this culminates in a total net lettable area in excess of 30,000 square metres. The facility also boasts an entire building dedicated to under-bond self storage. The project marks the take-off of the self-storage industry in the Middle East as the first facility of this size to be built. With awareness levels of this industry in Dubai at a very low level, the marketing campaign due to be launched for this project will raise the profile of the facility itself as well as the industry as a whole in Dubai thus growing a market awareness for this service.

 

Elsewhere in the UAE, Abu Dhabai is the wealthiest emirate of the UAE in terms of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and per capita income. The average net worth for Abu Dhabi's 420,000 citizens is AED 62 million (US$ 17 million), and more than $1 trillion is invested worldwide in this city alone. The GDP per capita also reached $63,000, which is far above the average income of the United Arab Emirates and which ranks third in the world after Luxembourg and Norway. Abu Dhabi is also planning many future projects sharing with the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf (GCC) and taking 29% of all the GCC future plannings. Currently there are no self storage facilities in Abu Dhabai but there has been a large amount of investment interest there for this industry.

 

Other areas within the GCC that are driving a lot of interest in self storage are Qatar, Bahrain and Kuwait, the latter of which has one existing self storage facility with plans in place for a second.

 

For more information on opportunities for in the Middle Eastern self storage market please contact us NOW!