CHICAGO—The self-storage sector has become one of the most attractive investments in commercial real estate, outperforming most others in terms of revenue growth, but in the past few quarters it reached a plateau. Growth in occupancy and revenue has slowed for its major REITs, along with their stock prices. As a result, these companies have slowed down acquisitions. However, that has opened up opportunities for the many private investors that want to jump into the still-vibrant sector.

“Transaction volume is way down for the public companies,” Marc Boorstein, a principal with self-storage firm MJ Partners, tells GlobeSt.com. The Chicago-based company just published its latest analysis of the sector, and found that self-storage REITs such as Public Storage and Extra Space Storage generated same-store revenue growth in the second quarter ranging from 0.9% to 5.4%. Several years ago, the same figures ranged from around seven to nearly ten percent.

“The REITs are all near full occupancy,” Boorstein adds, the chief reason growth has slowed. In the past few years, each of big players brought in technology that tracks customers better and retains their business longer, things unaffordable to the thousands of mom-and-pop operators still in self-storage. Those high-tech tools boosted the REITs' occupancy from little more than 80%, and into the low- to mid-90s. in the third quarter, for example, Life Storage reported occupancy of 92.7%, a slight increase from one year ago, and Public Storage's rate was 94.5%, a slight decline.