AcquisitionsPrivate EquityMid-Market DealsTransaction Volume

The Real Acquisition Market: Non-REIT and PE-Backed Buyers Are Running 80% of Self-Storage Deals in 2026

Self-storage transaction volume hit $5 billion in 2025, up 39% year-over-year. But 82% of those deals were done by non-REIT buyers: PE-backed platforms, regional operators, and 1031-exchange capital. That mix is defining the 2026 acquisition market, and for independent operators looking to exit, the window is open.

·8 min read·by David Cartolano·Source: StorageCafe / SkyView Advisors / Inside Self-Storage

The headline deal in self-storage right now is Public Storage's $10.5 billion all-stock acquisition of National Storage Affiliates Trust. It is the largest transaction in the sector's history and it will reshape the REIT tier of the market. But it is also a distraction from where most of the actual buying and selling is happening. Independent operators with one to five properties are not transacting at the REIT tier. They are transacting with a different buyer profile entirely, and that market is more active than it has been in three years.

Full-year 2025 self-storage transaction volume reached approximately $5 billion, a 39% increase over 2024, according to data compiled by StorageCafe and reported by Scotsman Guide. The quarterly breakdown tells the recovery story clearly: Q1 2025 hit $855 million (up 37% year-over-year), Q2 2025 came in at $755 million with average sale prices up 19% versus the prior year, and Q3 2025 surged to $1.6 billion, a 62% jump with 266 facilities changing hands. Non-REIT buyers drove 82% of those transactions by count, paying an average of $111 per square foot.

The buyers doing most of this work are not household names. They are PE-backed acquisition platforms building regional portfolios, operators executing 1031 exchanges, and private investors who sat out the 2021-2022 peak and are now deploying capital into an asset class they see as repriced to reality.

Who Is Actually Buying?

The non-REIT buyer category in self-storage covers a wide range, but three distinct profiles are driving deal activity in the mid-market tier in 2026.

PE-backed acquisition platforms are the most active growth segment. Boardwalk Development Group, a private-equity-focused self-storage platform, has deployed over $500 million in acquisitions and development and opened 2026 with the acquisition of All American Mini Storage in Hiram, Georgia, a 35,000-square-foot facility. Hearthfire Holdings has acquired 24 facilities across 10 states since entering the sector in 2019, committed $58 million in new investments during 2025 and into 2026, and executed joint ventures with investment firms Holdfolio and Terralpe for Chicago-area acquisitions. These platforms are structured to buy, stabilize, and either hold for cash flow or aggregate for an eventual institutional exit.

Regional operating companies are also active acquirers. Absolute Storage Management, which operates more than 150 properties across the Midwest and Southeast, added 17 management contracts in 2025 (12 operating facilities, 5 in development) and continues expanding its footprint through management-to-acquisition conversions. StorageMart, which added a 20-property portfolio in Illinois, Missouri, New Jersey, and New York during Q1 2026, is building density in specific metro clusters rather than pursuing broad geographic coverage.

The third buyer segment is 1031-exchange capital from individual and family-office investors. These buyers dominate the single-asset trade category under $10 million. They are often motivated by exchange deadlines more than return optimization, which creates consistent bid-side demand for smaller assets that institutional buyers ignore.

What Are They Paying?

Valuations have compressed significantly from the 2022-2023 peak, which is precisely what brought buyers back. Average sale prices in self-storage peaked at $174 per square foot in 2023 and declined for six consecutive quarters before stabilizing in 2025.

By Q3 2025, non-REIT buyers were paying an average of $133 per square foot, compared to $146 per square foot for REIT-involved transactions. The gap reflects the different target profiles: REITs focus on Class A assets in primary markets and dense urban infill, where competition supports premium pricing. Non-REIT buyers work across a broader geography, including secondary and tertiary markets where the price-per-square-foot is lower but cap rates are more favorable.

Cap rates in 2026 track asset quality closely. Class A climate-controlled facilities in primary markets are trading at 5.0% to 5.5%. Class B properties in secondary markets sit in the 5.5% to 6.5% range. Tertiary and smaller-market assets, or properties with operational challenges, are trading at 6.5% and above, with some secondary-market distressed assets clearing at 7.0% to 8.0%. For buyers underwriting at cap rates in the upper half of that range, the return math works in ways it did not when the market was pricing assets at 4.5% in 2022.

Where Are They Looking?

Secondary and tertiary markets are receiving the most attention from non-REIT buyers in 2026. The thesis is straightforward: primary markets have more REIT competition and lower cap rates; secondary markets have less competition, higher entry cap rates, and comparable or stronger demand fundamentals in many cases.

Sun Belt markets with population growth remain the most competitive geography even at the secondary level. But Midwest and Southeast tertiary markets are drawing more attention from smaller platforms, partly because the buyer competition is thinner and the seller expectations are more realistic. SkyView Advisors data shows transactions in cities like Cleveland, Medford, and Syracuse during early 2026, reflecting buyer interest well outside the growth-corridor premium markets.

Drive-up, single-story facilities in suburban infill locations are the preferred asset type for most non-REIT buyers. Climate-controlled urban product requires more capital expenditure, more sophisticated management, and longer stabilization timelines. For a platform that needs repeatable acquisitions across a portfolio, simpler assets in more predictable markets are the preferred path.

What Should Independent Sellers Know?

The market for single-asset transactions under $10 million is functioning and competitive. 1031-exchange buyers are consistent and motivated, and regional platform buyers are bidding on well-maintained assets in their target geographies. Sellers who have managed their properties well, with clean books, documented occupancy history, and current rent rates, are finding that the bid environment is better than 2023 or 2024.

The gap between seller expectations and buyer underwriting has narrowed. Sellers who anchored to 2022 peak pricing spent the last two years not transacting. Many have now adjusted. Buyers who need deal flow are moving on reasonably priced assets, and the bid-ask gap that paralyzed the market in 2023 is closing on a deal-by-deal basis.

Two dynamics work against sellers who delay. First, the PSA and NSA consolidation will eventually bring more institutional inventory back to market through portfolio rationalization, which could increase supply in some geographies. Second, if the housing recovery accelerates through 2026, REIT buyers will become more competitive again at the asset level, but that will lift primary market pricing first and secondary market pricing second. Sellers in secondary and tertiary markets should not expect a REIT bid as their exit option.

The relevant buyer is the regional platform or 1031 exchange, and the conditions to attract that buyer are a clean operations record, market-rate rents, and realistic price expectations based on current cap rate benchmarks, not 2022 comps.

The Numbers Worth Writing Down

  • Full-year 2025 self-storage transaction volume: approximately $5 billion, up 39% over 2024
  • Q3 2025: $1.6 billion across 266 facilities, up 62% year-over-year
  • Q1 2025: $855 million; Q2 2025: $755 million (average sale price $123/sq ft, up 19% YoY)
  • Non-REIT buyers: 82% of transactions by count in 2025, averaging $111/sq ft
  • REIT buyers: approximately 22% of Q3 2025 acquisitions at an average of $146/sq ft
  • Non-REIT buyers in Q3 2025: $133/sq ft average
  • Self-storage valuations peaked at $174/sq ft in 2023, declining for six consecutive quarters before stabilizing
  • Hearthfire Holdings: $58 million in new investments deployed in 2025 and into 2026, 24 facilities across 10 states
  • Boardwalk Development Group: more than $500 million deployed across acquisitions and development
  • Absolute Storage Management: 17 management contracts added in 2025, 150+ property portfolio
  • Cap rate range: 5.0-5.5% (Class A primary) to 7.0-8.0%+ (tertiary, distressed)

The Window Is Real, But the Buyer Is Not a REIT

The mid-market self-storage acquisition window in 2026 is genuinely open. Capital is available, buyers are active, and pricing has reset to levels where deals make sense for buyers who weren't willing to pay peak multiples. But the buyer in this market is almost certainly not a REIT. It is a PE-backed platform building a regional portfolio, a 1031-exchange investor looking to redeploy capital, or a regional operator expanding its geographic density.

Sellers who understand that distinction, and price accordingly, are transacting. Sellers who are waiting for an Extra Space or Public Storage bid on a 3-property portfolio in a secondary market are not. The 2022 market that priced every asset as institutional-quality regardless of location is gone. The 2026 market is more rational, and for sellers with realistic expectations, it is working.

Sources

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