Any Moat, Barriers to Entry to this Sector?, page-3

In a way there is a very deep moat, the thing about the storage business is that when you build a facility it takes up to 5 years to slowly fill up and then once it gets to 90% capacity it will stay there, once customers have thier stuff with you it stays for a long time and even if another place opens next door the vast majority of people will not be bothered to move their stuff to save 10-20 dollars a month .

Once you have built your facility and got it to 70% ( as nsr pretty much have with all their stuff ) you have taken a good chunk of the local business that is out there and it would be suicide for a competitor to open a new one near you as his lease up will be even slower as you already have the sticky local customers. The land grab has already happened and NSR have the prime spots, as mentioned these have the upside that they can be redeveloped at some point but a stable income is hard to beat .

In the US they realize this and storage is considered to be the best quality of all reit busineses so trades at the lowest div yield as it is the most stable/ safe / recession proof , NSR are the number 1 in oz / nz they are a well run business and anything close to 5% div yield is a no brainer for a steady growth business with what I consider to be an excellent moat ...

The storage business is a great one, people have a psychological connection to their stuff ( my wife especially, its almost a mental illness ) and will not throw it away, once it goes into storage it will stay for years and years .... The best thing you can do long term is buy a load of these and lock the share cert away in long term storage ....