Big Byte Insights recently launched a free to use dashboard that maps and tracks the progress of new self-storage development projects across the country.
“Our primary motivation for creating this crowd sourcing platform is to better serve our clients, who are investors in publicly traded REITs. They have often voiced their disappointment in the quality of new development data that is available through various sources,” said Shahzeb Zakaria, founder of Big Byte Insights, a New York-based provider of data driven stock market analysis.
Zakaria has previously covered the self-storage industry REITs as an analyst for One William Street Capital and Macquarie Bank. The new platform is available at self-storage.supply. Much of the data included to date was sourced from the SpareFoot Storage Beat. New data will be added on a continual basis.
“As a positive externality, I think this website will allow more intelligent development in the storage sector. Since the dashboard is absolutely free for anyone to use, developers can see where new construction is taking place and hence avoid the problem of overbuilding in any specific market,” Zakaria said.
Developers are encouraged to submit their own development projects into the system using this form.
Zakaria says Big Byte will provide a premium version with further data analysis.
“The premium version of our product will include an analysis of storage REIT exposure to new development. For example, using the crowd sourced data we will be able to make statements, such as in a 5 mile radius around company A’s assets, there are 0.15 new facilities being built right now vs. 0.19 new facilities for Company B,” Zakaria said.
Zakaria said based on U.S. Census data, he expects the current development cycle to continue to expand.
“Self-storage construction is accelerating and showing no signs of slowing down. The census bureau data measures the value of work done, and hence it will show an increase before the actual square footage is available for rent. So essentially, the census bureau data is a forward indicator of square footage that will be coming online in six, nine, and 12 months down the road,” Zakaria said.
