Public Storage (PSA)

Public Storage owns, develops and operates self-storage facilities, which rent storage space month to month for personal and business use. Around that sit three related businesses: tenant reinsurance, managing facilities for other owners, and bridge lending to other self-storage owners. It is a Maryland REIT and the largest owner of self-storage facilities in the United States, with a presence in most major markets and 40 states.

The portfolio

At the end of 2025 the company held interests in and consolidated 3,171 self-storage facilities, an aggregate of 229 million net rentable square feet, operating under the Public Storage name. Separately it managed 362 facilities for third parties, about 28.2 million net rentable square feet, and was under contract to manage 84 more, of which 78 were under construction.

It also holds a 35 percent interest in Shurgard Self Storage, a company listed on Euronext Brussels, which at the end of 2025 owned and operated 332 self-storage facilities, 18 million net rentable square feet, in seven countries in Western Europe under the Shurgard name.

How fragmented the industry is

The filing states that ownership and operation of self-storage facilities is highly fragmented. As the largest owner, the company states that it believes it owns approximately 9 percent of the self-storage square footage in the United States, that collectively the four largest owners own approximately 22 percent, and that the remaining 78 percent is owned by regional and local operators.

The structure

On 14 August 2023 the company reorganised so that it now holds its facilities through an operating partnership, Public Storage OP, and its subsidiaries including Public Storage Operating Company, which was organised in 1980. That is an umbrella partnership REIT, or UPREIT: after the reorganisation the parent entity's primary assets are general partner and limited partner interests in the operating partnership rather than the facilities themselves.

Bridge lending

The company implemented this lending programme in 2024, providing financing to third-party self-storage owners for operating properties that it also manages. The loans are collateralised by operating self-storage properties, generally run three or four years with two one-year extensions, and carry variable interest rates. At the end of 2025 the bridge loan receivable balance was $142.1 million, with $43.9 million of unfunded commitments subject to conditions.

How the facilities are grouped for reporting

The self-storage operations are analysed in four groups. Same Store Facilities are the 2,565 facilities owned and operated on a stabilised basis since 1 January 2023. Acquired Facilities are the 273 bought since that date. Newly Developed and Expanded Facilities are 111 that have been built or expanded, or had begun expansion, by the end of 2025. Other Non-Same Store Facilities are 222 that are otherwise not stabilised on occupancy or rental rates. The last three together are the Non-Same Store Facilities.

What the company says gives it an edge

Its scale, its brand name and its technology platform. It also points to brand awareness and to improvements it has made to the customer experience as advantages in acquiring and retaining customers relative to other operators.

What it flags as risks to that

Among the items the filing lists: changes in demand for its facilities, changes in national self-storage development activity, the impacts of its own strategic corporate transformation initiative, natural disasters, adverse changes in laws governing property tax, evictions, rental rates, minimum wage levels and insurance, increases in the cost of its primary customer acquisition channels, high interest rates and inflation, unfavourable currency movements, changes in the taxation of REITs, and security breaches including ransomware.

From Public Storage's annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended 31 December 2025. The filing