If the economy is stalled and jobs are being lost, it may be time to strike out on your own.
No, this is not a column about body shaming, but let's take aim at the extra pounds of junk in your home that will end up costing you money, even in
this caused prices to fall by almost 20 percent.
The self-storage industry is thriving thanks to our obsession with consumption, and Canadians are overflowing with stuff, closing the gap with Americans, who have nearly double the amount of self-storage per capita.
Companies like 1-800-GOT-JUNK?, which has more than 175 franchises in Canada, the United States and Australia, are targeting this consumption, and a number of decluttering companies have emerged to help people reduce their expenses.
“We're starting to see something unprecedented: the largest intergenerational transfer of waste as many boomers downsize. Families are faced with a choice: Should it be stored or thrown away?” said James Alish, chief revenue and operations officer for Vancouver-based 1-800-GOT-JUNK?
Your basement full of treasures will end up being sold for pennies, donated to charity, or thrown away. And what it costs you is a piece of your living space. If we value it at $1000 per square foot, which is quite reasonable in
this is an expensive storage solution.
There is a wave of television programs built on hoarder horror stories, but in reality it is not unusual for a waste collection company to arrive at a home and find the room uninhabitable because it is being used as storage. Confession: I have one of these rooms.
Two years ago, the Ontario Municipal Property Assessment Corporation reported that the province had 7.3 million square feet of commercial warehouse space, equivalent to the total ice surface of about 2,200 NHL rinks.
That number has grown 11 percent in the three years since 2020, and there is no reason to believe it has slowed that much since the only drag the market is facing today is a slowdown in housing transactions.
Self storage thrives during housing activity, including downsizing, upsizing and people moving out.
Danny Friedman, interim chief executive of Forum Make Space, which is investing in about 28 storage facilities from Vancouver to Quebec, said Canada continues to see significant institutional investment.
“Tailwinds make homes more expensive, which leads to smaller spaces, and people are still buying things,” Friedman said. “There just aren’t a lot of garages and basements and places for people to store their stuff.”
The storage manager reported that there was an uptick in usage during this period.
but since then it has declined somewhat. However, with construction costs also impacting the sector, supply is also not expanding as quickly, which is good for rates.
“It’s not so much whether home prices will go up or down, but rather the number of transactions,” Friedman said. “There are a lot of non-economic storage needs. People die. People get married. They have children. These are the things that cause people to move and get storage space.”
When housing prices started to rise, people simply stopped moving around as much. They may have had a child, but with
higher up, they stayed in place and made do. Commercial leasing also accounts for about 25 percent of the business, but they may also double down on storage space for temporary reasons when times get tough.
Colliers says rental growth has been more modest in recent months, largely due to new supply. However, the real estate company said buyers remain confident in the long-term fundamentals of the self-storage asset class, which they view as resilient and cash flow stable.
Oliver Tye, executive vice president at Colliers, said there is no single factor influencing self-storage. However, the sector has historically been recession-resistant because people need it in bad times.
“There's been a huge surge in warehouse construction over the last 24 months, but it's slowing now,” said Teich, who estimates the supply of warehouse space at four square feet per person in Canada, compared with nine square feet south of the border. “The US population is much more mobile (and needs temporary storage solutions).”
A Colliers executive agreed there is a direct correlation between shrinking home sizes and rising demand for self-storage in Canada.
“People think self-storage is a temporary solution, but it's never the case,” Tighe said, adding that the average period can be 24 to 36 months, although the consumer thinks it will last three months. “Almost all customers stay longer than they planned because it's easy and costs little to skip the can in the future. But people want that flexibility on a monthly basis for convenience.”
Even if the apartment market continues to struggle, self-storage will continue to thrive, Tighe says, because losing your home means you need a place to store your stuff. “Dislocation is the driving force of self-preservation,” he said.
StorageVault Canada Inc., Canada's largest publicly traded self-storage company, reported in the second quarter that its annual revenue was still growing at 6.3 percent despite headwinds from the housing market.
said the warehouse rent index itself shows rents were up 5.2 per annum in September 2025 compared to last year. Bank analysts covering the sector believe a recovery in home sales will further boost the market, as will home renovations.
Moving companies with some ties to the self-storage industry are also supporting the housing market recovery in their sector.
“People just aren’t moving,” said Nancy Irwin, president of the Canadian Movers Association. “People just aren't sure what's going to happen economically, so they're hesitant to move.”
This can be compared to the pandemic, when people moved around the country, switching to home working. “We couldn’t get the job done, we didn’t have enough bodies,” Irwin said.
There is a glimmer of hope for movers today as office mandates encourage people to return to cities. “We are hearing anecdotal reports from members about this,” Irwin said.
Some of these people may also want to put their belongings into storage as they consider moving 100% back to the city center and moving companies profit from this because they will be storing the contents.
Friedman said storage will always be a more economical option for the consumer in terms of space compared to a larger home.
“It doesn’t even compare,” he said, noting that even renting an apartment for your belongings will cost more than a more compact storage unit.
The real lesson is to get organized, which is why many companies are considering a business model for people who have trouble doing it themselves.
The reality is that most people won't, so storage may be a better option than paying today's prices for rooms full of junk. I mean treasures.
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