HeyLager
One of HeyLager's Garage Parks
Germany’s drive-up self-storage market is beginning to stir—quietly, but with unmistakable potential. While such parks have long been a fixture in the US and the UK, their German counterparts remain few and far between. For now. With user demand rising and investor interest accelerating, the question is no longer whether this asset class will gain traction—but how it can be made operationally and economically viable at scale.
The answer lies in more than bricks and mortar. To scale beyond localized, manually managed drive-up storage parks across Germany and meet institutional return expectations, a fully digital, platform-based strategy offers the clearest path forward.
A highly fragmented market with underexploited yield potential
According to a recent white paper by sector analyst Daniel Borger, Germany counted just over 600 drive-up storage parks at the end of 2024, typically offering 70 to 80 units on a lettable area with an average of around 2,200 m². Yet only two operators have more than 20 locations—and only six run more than ten parks. The market is overwhelmingly run by small private landlords who manage one to three sites as a side business. Many lack centralised systems, offer no online booking, and handle operations through mobile phones and manual processes. It often leads to inefficiencies that frustrate customers and make the services feel outdated.
This high level of fragmentation is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it reflects a market still far from saturation. On the other, it exposes the acute operational strain faced by anyone attempting to expand beyond a single region. For investors, the upside is clear—but so is the risk: without the right systems, scale becomes a liability.
Operational costs: the hidden barrier to growth
At the heart of the drive-up concept is user convenience: renters drive their vehicle directly to their unit, typically located on the outskirts of towns or in commercial zones along main transport routes. The logic is simple, but the logistics are not.
Running multiple decentralised sites means grappling with a host of operational frictions—handovers, key management, meter readings, invoicing, repairs and security—across wide geographical distances. Without digital tools, each additional site introduces further personnel costs, administrative complexity and margin erosion.
In a sector that should thrive on low overheads and high automation, the prevailing analogue reality is striking. The industry in Germany is still dominated by call centres and manual rentals, and even market-leading companies often operate without offering online contracts or app-based access. Smaller players go further still, fielding calls themselves and making handovers in person. As a result, many remain trapped in their own postcode.
HeyLager
Joachim Rabe, CEO, HeyLager
Why platform thinking is essential
What the market lacks isn’t physical space or construction experience—it’s digital automation platform. And that’s what will determine who emerges as a long-term winner.
A robust platform strategy goes far beyond an online booking widget. It is the connective tissue that links customer acquisition, contract execution, payment flows, access control, and property maintenance—all while remaining scalable, secure, and largely automated. It turns a patchwork of sites into a coherent portfolio.
At a minimum, such a platform should provide:
- Real-time unit availability and pricing
- 24/7 digital contracting
- Fully automated invoicing and payment reminders
- Smart lock systems with instant app-based access
- Digital documentation of handovers and damages
- Integrated alarms, door sensors, and remote surveillance
- Ticket-based repair and maintenance tracking with tenant notification
- Detailed performance and finance reporting to learn from data
These are not distant aspirations. They are baseline requirements for anyone looking to operate drive-up storage at scale—and to offer investors the consistency, transparency and margin structure they expect from a real asset.
HeyLager’s approach: platform first, property second
Founded in August 2023, HeyLager is entering this under-served market with a simple premise: digital efficiency and a customer-centric approach must drive physical expansion. Therefore HeyLager Parks combine both drive-up and indoor self-storage (starting at 3 m²), designed for mixed-use tenants and operated almost entirely via a connected platform. The aim is to make renting a secure, high-quality unit as seamless as booking a hotel room online.
We see ourselves not as property developers, but as technology operators with a real estate footprint. The advantage is clear: by automating everything from access control to arrears management, we can run a nationally distributed network with minimal personnel—while ensuring high service levels and low operating costs.
The model allows us to scale quickly, capture market share in under-served areas, and—most importantly—generate predictable, platform-driven cashflows in a sector where this has rarely been possible.
Conclusion: A market still up for grabs
Drive-up storage in Germany is not yet a mature asset class—but it is evolving fast. As municipalities tighten zoning for residential and logistics, edge-of-town storage may offer a flexible, low-conflict solution for light commercial demand, small businesses, tradespeople and private users alike.
But without the right operational model, the investment quickly weakens. Efficient scalability, not location alone, will determine success. And scalability in this market begins—and ends—with a functioning platform and a customer-centric approach.
HeyLager will showcase how this can work in practice at the first German symposium for drive-up storage and garage parks on 18 September in Frankfurt. We look forward to the discussion.
Here's the link to the symposium: https://conference.refire-online.com/