How Much Money Does a Self Storage Facility Make?
A 300-unit self storage facility typically generates $162,000 to $366,000 per year depending on where it sits in the lease-up. Revenue Map's storage presets model $105 per unit per month at a starting 45% occupancy, producing about $13,500 per month, growing to $30,500 at stabilized 88% occupancy with a $118 rate.
Self storage revenue is an occupancy equation with almost no cost of goods: locks and a little insurance resale put COGS near 3%, so gross margin sits near 97%. Revenue Map's default 300-unit facility collects about $13,500 per month at phase-one occupancy of 45%, meaning roughly 135 of the 300 units are rented. At stabilized occupancy of 88%, that climbs to $30,500. The gap between those two numbers is the entire story, and it plays out over eighteen months or more of lease-up.
What makes storage projections different from every other vertical is the length of the ramp. Revenue Map's presets model an eighteen-month lease-up starting at 25% of phase-one demand, so the facility opens with roughly 34 units rented and fills slowly. During that period, the $8,460 monthly mortgage payment runs whether there are 34 tenants or 264. A plan that shows the stabilized year without the trough beneath it is not a projection a lender will fund.
Revenue Breakdown
Self storage revenue and costs by growth phase
| Item | Typical range | Notes | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly revenue, phase one (45% occupancy) | About $13,500 | 135 of 300 units rented at $105 per month, 5% promotional discount during lease-up | Revenue Map model presets |
| Monthly revenue, phase two (72% occupancy) | About $23,500 | 216 units rented at $112 per month, discount narrowing to 3% as facility fills | Revenue Map model presets |
| Monthly revenue, stabilized (88% occupancy) | About $30,500 | 264 units rented at $118 per month, 2% discount on new leases only | Revenue Map model presets |
| Monthly fixed costs (phase one) | About $8,900 | 1.5 staff at $2,600 plus 20% payroll tax, $700 utilities, $900 insurance, $1,500 marketing | Revenue Map model presets |
| Monthly mortgage payment | About $8,460 | $1,050,000 financed at 7.5% over 20 years on a $1,400,000 build-out or conversion | Revenue Map model presets |
| Monthly cash position during early lease-up | Negative $3,500 to negative $4,200 | At 25-45% occupancy, revenue does not cover fixed costs plus debt service | Revenue Map model presets |
Sources: Revenue Map model presets (default investment, pricing and funnel assumptions in our industry templates), Revenue Map model templates (vertical research in each financial model), Revenue Map benchmark tables (the thresholds behind our free calculators), and honest industry ranges where our own data is thin. Ranges are planning bands, not guarantees.
What Moves the Number
Lease-up speed dominates everything
Revenue Map's presets model an eighteen-month ramp starting at 25% of phase-one demand, meaning the facility opens with roughly 34 units occupied. At that level, monthly revenue is about $3,400, well below the combined $17,400 of fixed costs and mortgage. The facility that reaches 88% in eighteen months and the one that takes thirty-six have the same stabilized income and completely different outcomes, because the gap is eighteen months of debt service paid out of the owner's pocket.
Rate discipline widens margin at nearly zero cost
Because COGS is only 3%, a rate increase of $10 per unit on 264 rented units at maturity adds $2,640 of monthly revenue and $2,561 of monthly gross profit. Revenue Map's presets move rate from $105 to $118 across phases. There is essentially no variable cost to absorb, so every dollar of rate growth drops almost entirely to pre-tax income.
The mortgage is the constraint, not the P and L
Revenue Map's presets carry a $1,050,000 loan at 7.5% over twenty years, producing an $8,460 monthly payment that absorbs 63% of phase-one revenue and 28% at stabilization. Debt service coverage of 1.25 is the test lenders apply to storage assets, and the facility does not reach it until occupancy passes roughly 65%. A plan that does not show the path from opening to 65% occupancy is incomplete.
Frequently Asked Questions
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