CELEBRATING 30 YEARS

Ian Oliver

Ian was a founding member of the SSAA. He owned and operated Capital Self Storage in Canberra from 1988 to 2014 when he sold the business to National Storage.

One day in Sydney in 1987, Ian walked past a building filled with roller doors. He thought, “what’s going on here?“ and talked to the manager, who explained it was self storage. Ian thought, “What a good idea”, and did some homework, realised it was an excellent idea and got involved.

Ian is from Canberra and Queanbeyan, and, together with an investment partner, started looking for a site to build a facility. They found a one-hectare (four-acre) block six months later, though it wasn’t the best in slope and undulation. Luckily, they were approached by an excavator firm who wanted to bring their fill over to level off the site.

Once this was compacted, the site was suitable for a single storey, 40-unit, ranch-style building. The facility was completed within that first year. At that time, demand for self storage was so high, customers were moving in before they had completed driveways. It was an instant success.

In the 1990s, there weren’t any selfstorage specialist builders. Everybody thought a garage-type builder would suit the requirements and that the style of buildings they had in the US were more applicable. Ian decided they wanted a 12-metre span, so they engineered their buildings and built 200 units from their design.

The following site they developed in Hume was very large. This site received three to four times more phone call enquiries than Queanbeyan. The business acquired another site in Mitchell and then one in Philip in the ACT. There was also a little site in Goulburn and another couple in country towns in New South Wales. In 2014 they were approached by National Storage to purchase all of the properties. operators. At the Convention, Ian told attendees they needed 100 storage facilities to submit their information for comparative data. This was the first analysis ever compiled for the industry.

It compared the industry to other real estate businesses such as motels, service stations, food chains, etc. It became the basis for telling the story of what the self storage landscape looked like.

Ian is still involved self storage from an investment perspective in Australia and overseas. l

Forming the SSAA

Ian was invited to the initial meeting of self storage operators in Sydney. He and Dallas Dogger represented Canberra. They met people such as Neville Kennard and Jim Miller, who had a lot to offer as they had been established a little bit longer. This meeting primarily discussed Western Australia and its state revenue office asking for stamp duty on rental agreements. That brought the need for the Association to have a range of standard agreements. Individual operators did not have the resources for legal and other specialist advice. However, by joining together and forming the SSAA all operators have access to an essential resource.

Early on, people didn’t understand self storage. Bankers, valuers and new investors asked questions about financial data, and Ian saw the need for industry comparatives. Previously Ian had been involved in the Financial Management Research Centre (FMRC) in Armidale, New South Wales, and in 2003 he asked them to facilitate the compilation of data from a select group of “Early on, people didn’t understand self storage. Bankers, valuers and new investors asked questions about financial data, and Ian saw the need for industry comparatives.