Two newly closed property acquisitions with a relatively modest $8.7-million price tag have pushed StorageVault Canada past the $140-million milestone for deal value thus far this year. The listed company, which is traded on the TSX Venture Exchange, now owns and operates 226 storage locations in seven provinces and recently reported a 22.5 per cent year-over-year increase in revenue between the second quarters of 2020 and 2021.
Those same Q2 results confirm the company is targeting another $60 million worth of holdings before 2022. “The market continues to be extremely strong and we are well positioned to take advantage of this for the balance of the year,” says Iqbal Khan, StorageVault’s chief financial officer.
That’s perhaps emblematic of the general surging investment activity in alternative asset classes, which also include seniors’ housing, life sciences, data centres and cold storage.
“I think we just understand those sectors way better than we used to. Those are specialized asset classes that have traditionally been held by a relatively small portion of owners, and institutions now understand the asset classes better,” Paul Morassutti, vice chair of CBRE Canada’s valuation and advisory services, reflected during a recent webinar. “Looking at self-storage as an example, the industry in Canada was (previously) incredibly Mom & Pop, and the change in the last five years has been remarkable. The compression in cap rates has been remarkable.”
With the recently announced completions of deals for properties in the Greater Toronto Area and Alberta, the StorageVault portfolio encompasses more than 10.2 million square feet of rentable space on 600 acres of land. The Toronto acquisition also comes with a rooftop solar panel system, complementing the company’s commitment to implement sustainable environmental practices.
