Transaction volume in self-storage has been slower than either side wants. Capital is ready. Assets need to trade. But the gap between what sellers believe their properties are worth and what buyers will pay has kept a large slice of inventory off the market. That standoff is shifting in June 2026, and not because sentiment improved overnight. Sellers are running out of alternatives.
Tom de Jong, executive vice president at Colliers and founding principal of the De Jong Self Storage Team, told KeyCrew in a June 3, 2026 interview that he heard of three or four situations in a single week where operators quietly returned assets to bridge lenders. No auction listings. No press releases. Just negotiated transfers of problem assets whose capital stacks no longer work at current income.
Why Are 2021-Vintage Assets Stuck in the Middle?
Most of the assets struggling to trade were built or underwritten in 2021 and 2022, when four-and-a-half to five percent cap rates on projected rents looked reasonable. Sellers assumed consistent annual rent growth of five to seven percent. Achieved rents on many of those properties now sit well below original projections. Occupancies in the mid-to-high 80 percent range look acceptable on a dashboard but do not support the income that justified the original loan.
Cap rates have moved to the five-and-a-half to seven percent range depending on market. Asset values have fallen well below where sellers expected to exit. Buyers underwrite today's achieved rents with flat rate assumptions going forward, not the aggressive growth curves that characterized 2021 vintage underwriting. Both sides have internally consistent math. The problem is that the two models produce very different prices for the same building.
De Jong's team recently evaluated a Minnesota facility that cost approximately $6 million to build. The offer on the table: $4.8 million. The property ran in the mid-80 percent occupancy range at rental rates meaningfully below the market rent assumptions that justified construction. The sellers pursued a different exit, but the dynamic is representative. Buyers can access newly built assets with modern unit mixes and no deferred maintenance at prices that would have been unthinkable in 2021.
How Do Buyers Price the Achieved-to-Market Rent Gap?
Sophisticated buyers center underwriting on the spread between achieved rents and current market rents. If a facility's achieved rate is $1.25 per square foot but the market supports $1.50, a buyer gives partial credit for that upside, not full credit, and not at the cap rate the seller wants.
The seller wants to be paid at market value. The buyer wants to purchase at achieved income with a risk-adjusted discount for closing the gap through existing-customer rate increases. When a deal closes, it lands between those two positions. That is the bid-ask spread in practice, and it is narrowing deal by deal rather than through a sector-wide repricing event.
Market Daily's June 2026 profile of de Jong's pipeline notes that private equity funds raised five to six years ago are at or past intended hold periods. Fresh institutional capital needs deployment. When motivated sellers and motivated buyers hit inflection points simultaneously, transactions happen. Enterprise-level acquisitions in high-barrier markets such as New York City boroughs, where institutional buyers replaced earlier capital partners needing liquidity, signal that large trades are possible when pricing reflects current reality.
What Role Are REIT Bridge Programs Playing?
The acute pressure is coming from bridge loan programs that extended financing to operators and developers at up to 90 percent of projected value. Many of those projections never materialized. De Jong reports bridge loans now sitting at 110 to 120 percent of current asset value. When interest reserves run out, operators face a binary choice: inject more capital to keep the loan current, or hand the keys back.
Lenders who take back those assets must mark them to market and find buyers. For capital that is positioned and ready, this creates a specific opportunity. Asset quality may be sound. Location may be solid. The issue is the capital stack, and when that resolves through transfer, an acquiring buyer can price at current market levels rather than 2021 projections.
KeyCrew's June 3 piece frames the pipeline as real even though it is invisible in public deal registers. Bridge returns do not show up in Inside Self-Storage transaction roundups the same week they happen. They show up weeks later as discounted acquisitions by buyers who never competed in the original construction boom.
Is Deal Flow Actually Accelerating?
De Jong is seeing transaction volume pick up heading into 2026. Opinion-of-value requests are increasing, which his team treats as a leading indicator of deal flow. Portfolio transactions are happening. Single-asset deals work when sellers align with current market realities.
Market Daily's June 2026 report adds that early Yardi data suggests the spring leasing season is off to a better start than prior years, with more sustained optimism around rental activity through the quarter. Improving operating metrics matter directly to acquisitions because buyers price on current and near-term income. When NOI is flat or declining, underwriting stays conservative. When rental activity improves and existing-customer rate increases close the gap between achieved and market rents, more deals pencil out.
More active does not mean a return to 2021 conditions. Cap rates are not going back to four and a half percent. De Jong expects deal activity to continue accelerating through 2026 and into 2027. Sellers who price to current realities are finding buyers. Those waiting for a return to peak valuations are likely to wait a long time.
The Numbers Worth Writing Down
- Interview date: June 3, 2026 (KeyCrew / Tom de Jong)
- Bridge loan LTV vs. current value: 110% to 120% on problem assets
- Vintage underwriting cap rates: 4.5% to 5% on projected rents with 5% to 7% annual growth assumptions
- Current buyer cap rates: 5.5% to 7% on achieved income with flat rate assumptions
- Quiet key returns: 3 to 4 situations in one week at time of interview
- Minnesota example: ~$6M build cost, $4.8M offer, mid-80% occupancy below pro forma rents
- Leading indicator: Rising opinion-of-value requests at Colliers De Jong team
- De Jong track record: $2B+ in transactions across 32 states, 19 years at Colliers
Distress Without Headlines
The self-storage acquisition market in June 2026 is not waiting for a macro announcement to reopen. It is clearing through private bridge transfers, below-replacement-cost bids on 2021 vintage assets, and sellers whose fund timelines expired. The bid-ask gap closes when sellers run out of road, not when buyers get more optimistic.
Operators with capital and accurate underwriting have a window that de Jong describes as a meaningful entry point before the broader recovery takes full hold. The inventory is there. Most of it just will not make the news until the keys have already changed hands.
Sources
- The Gap Between What Self-Storage Sellers Want and What Buyers Will Pay Is Finally Starting to Close, KeyCrew
- Motivated Sellers, Patient Buyers, and Below-Replacement-Cost Assets: Why Self Storage Deal Flow Is Shifting in 2026, Market Daily
- Self-Storage Investing Outlook 2026: Acquisitions, New Development and Lending, Inside Self-Storage
- Self-Storage Real Estate Acquisitions and Sales: June 2026, Inside Self-Storage