By Agota Felhazi | Multi Housing News
The pace of self storage development slowed somewhat in the first half of 2025, with developers completing close to 27.7 million rentable square feet on a national level, according to Yardi Matrix data. Deliveries were down 12.8 percent compared to the same period of 2024 when more than 31.7 million square feet of storage came online. Despite the dip, construction activity remained robust in key metros. Highlighted below are the top 10 U.S. markets which accounted for 36.2 percent of all deliveries. These metros also continue to show strong development drive with nearly 16.5 million rentable square feet under construction across some 210 facilities and another 570 planned projects totaling 40 million rentable square feet.
1. Atlanta
Atlanta supplanted Dallas-Fort Worth at the forefront of self storage construction securing the top stop with more than 1.5 million rentable square feet of space delivered during the first half of the year. Contrary to the national trend, completions increased 16 percent compared to the same period of 2024. Then 17 facilities totaling 1.3 million rentable square feet of storage came online.
Metro Atlanta had 20 projects under construction totaling 1.4 million rentable square feet as of June. The metro had the highest number of planned projects among the metros on the list with 79 facilities encompassing some 4.7 million square feet. However, the pace of new construction has decelerated. In the first six months of the year, developers broke ground on just 609,102 square feet. This was less than half of the 1.3 million square feet that began construction in the same timeframe of 2024. All in all, the metro is expected to gain more than 2.3 million rentable square feet of self storage stock by the end of 2025, according to Yardi Matrix forecast.
2. Phoenix
Phoenix added some 1.5 million rentable square feet of storage space in the first half of the year, claiming the second spot on our list. The metro’s construction activity kicked into high gear as in the first six months of 2024 merely 415,555 rentable square feet came online. With a 259.3 percent year-over-year increase Phoenix saw the most elevated expansion in deliveries among the metros on the list.
Greater Phoenix had the largest under-construction pipeline with 28 facilities totaling 2.5 million rentable square feet as of June. Developers also had 72 planned projects encompassing nearly 5.3 million rentable square feet. There had been a slowdown in construction starts for Phoenix too, simply not as sharp as in other metros on the list. Developers broke ground on 998,128 feet of storage in the first six months of 2025 and on more than 1.1 million square feet in the same period of 2024. Phoenix is expected to gain close to 2.7 million square feet of storage by the end of the year, according to Yardi Matrix.
