The need for a storage space can usually be recognized quickly. After a move, a renovation, or a simple decluttering, the question always arises: Where to put all the stuff? Storing the items off-site offers an obvious solution here. Not immediately clear, however, is the price one has to pay for it, in order to find for the household effects, the furniture, the tools, etc. a new and good home.
A storage room in Germany costs on average 26 € per m² per month. The final price for a storage space is dependent on several factors, including your location, the required storage space size, and any special needs regarding the nature of your stored goods. As a rule, you must expect to pay at least 50 € and up to more than 250 € per month.
In the following, we provide a clear overview of how the prices for storage rooms and Selfstorage are composed and which rates are offered to you on the German market.
How are the rent and the price for a storage room composed?
Before you start looking for a storage room or a suitable Selfstorage, you must deal with some key points that determine the final costs for the storage space and thus your budget:
- How much storage room do you need in square meters (m²) or, if applicable, in volume (m³) if your things can be stacked high? The more storage space you rent, the lower the square meter price usually becomes.
- How long do you want to rent the storage room? When renting over a longer time, the monthly price normally reduces.
- Do you need specific services like CCTV/video surveillance, insurances, air conditioning, etc.? Then you usually have to expect additional fees.
- Must the storage room be located in your immediate vicinity, or are you willing to drive a few extra kilometers? Centrally located Selfstorage units or storage halls in large cities are far more expensive than those located outside the metropolitan areas.
Prices by dimension: How much space do you really need?
The more square meters you rent, the higher the monthly rent for your storage space rises. However, you will soon notice that the actual square meter price decreases at the same time.
For example, according to our research, a small storage box of one square meter costs on average about 35 € per m² a month. If you rent 5 m², for example for wholesale-bought office material, sports equipment, or tools, you indeed have to pay significantly more rent, but the actual square meter price reduces from 175 € (5 m² x 35 €) to 125 € (5 m² x 25 €).
During a move or a renovation, where you also have to store larger pieces of furniture and several moving boxes, the square meter price reduces to around 16 €, i.e., less than half of the initial price of 35 € per square meter.
This data represents storage prices per m² in Germany from January to July 2025; collected April 16 and published May 5, 2026.
Regarding the table, you must however take into consideration that these are average values, which are based on the collected prices of the entire federal territory and take no account of individual local conditions. At the same time, the square meter prices in large cities like Berlin, Munich, Hamburg, or Stuttgart can lie far above the average of 35 € per m². Simultaneously, the square meter price in smaller cities and in places outside the metropolitan areas is often significantly cheaper than the average prices stated here. When you start looking for a storage space for your property, you should therefore, apart from the average price, also take the location of your storage room into consideration when calculating your storage space rent.
Where is storage room cheaper or more expensive? Rates by location
As a rule of thumb, storage room will be expensive in the cities where the rents for apartments and houses are also high. There, many tenants are forced to manage with less living space and to compensate for saving smaller space by outsourcing household effects and items that are not necessarily needed every day. The lack of living space increases the demand for storage spaces and Selfstorage units and thus also determines the price to a certain degree.
Added to this are large differences in the rental price if you decide on a storage space outside the city centers. In most cases, you will find far cheaper Selfstorage units and storage rooms in industrial areas and business parks on the city outskirts or in suburbs. Furthermore, many Selfstorage providers nowadays choose locations that can be comfortably reached via highway exits.
The most expensive cities for rented storage room in Germany are Leonberg and Kornwestheim near Stuttgart (Baden-Württemberg) and Freiberg in Saxony, which is located in the immediate vicinity of Dresden, Chemnitz, and Leipzig. Among the cities where one can rent storage room most cheaply belong Mainz, Wiesbaden, and Nuremberg as well as large parts of the Ruhrgebiet.
This data represents storage prices per m² in Germany from January to July 2025; collected April 16 and published May 5, 2026.
Not in all cases is the rental price for living space decisive for high storage room rents. Since the Corona time, the number of vacant commercial properties has risen sharply even in large cities. The empty premises are often converted into important storage space by Selfstorage and storage room landlords, to the advantage of the cornered tenants. So if you are looking for a storage space in Frankfurt, for example, you could still make a bargain there due to the available commercial properties despite high apartment rental prices.
Why does the price vary? Influence of rental duration, facilities, and services
Location and the size of the rented space are, as already mentioned, not the only components for the final rental price of a storage unit. Sometimes tenants of storage units find out during a comparison that they pay different amounts despite the same rental space and the same location. That usually has nothing to do with the sales department of the storage room manager liking one better than the other. The different rental prices are rather based on the agreements that are based on the personal preferences and special needs of the individual customers.
When the Selfstorage or storage room landlord calculates the monthly bill, they will take the following into consideration:
The rental duration
The length of the rental contract is of crucial importance for the monthly rental price of a storage unit. As a rule, those who commit to a longer rental time are rewarded with cheaper conditions and discounts. Flexible contracts, where the tenant cannot determine the need for time and/or storage space size for personal reasons, as well as short rental contracts, often turn out far more expensive. Many storage space landlords also give further discounts, for example if the tenant pays the bill for the entire agreed rental time in advance.
Air conditioning and additional services
Depending on the Selfstorage or storage space landlord, additional costs like air conditioners, ventilation, access to electricity and/or water as well as building cleaning are often added to the monthly rental price. The right to access around the clock could also increase the actual rental price. These special services are of particular importance if you are looking for a storage unit for business reasons. Then the manner in which your stored goods are kept is decisive not only for you personally, but also for, among others, your customers and employees.
Security and access control
Irrespective of whether you rent the storage space for personal or business reasons, you want to be sure that your things are also kept safe from the access of strangers. An adequate security surveillance therefore has top priority. Here, different storage room landlords offer vastly different services. Most Selfstorage and storage space providers indeed have a form of security control in place. The extent of the precautions, however, varies greatly from provider to provider, which is also reflected in the rental bills.
While some offer a form of video surveillance, others go further and offer units that are controlled by apps and activate individual locks as well as room surveillance. Still others, Full-Service-Storage providers like BOXIE24, restrict public traffic so severely from the beginning that absolutely no unauthorized person can move near your property. The mentioned services can in many cases be added to the base price of the rent. Therefore, it is important that you read through the fine print in your rental contract thoroughly. With some providers, however, these services belong to the matter of course, which are already incorporated into the rental price. The cheapest is therefore not necessarily also the best.
Hidden additional costs: Insurance, moving helpers, and administration
Besides the already mentioned rather obvious additional costs, a number of hidden fees could appear on the bill with some Selfstorage and storage room landlords, which you perhaps might not have expected. These include:
Insurances
As a rule, the items that you give for storage are covered by your household insurance. Many landlords will therefore demand the presentation of an insurance policy upon signing the storage room rental contract. However, most household insurances merely cover an outsourcing outside your household or business only over a limited period. Added to this are concerns about the market value of stored operational goods, which is often not sufficiently covered by a conventional storage liability insurance. In both cases, the Selfstorage or storage space landlord can usually offer an additional insurance, which will, however, increase the rental price. Therefore, ask your liability insurance which conditions apply in your case.
Administration fees
In some cases, for example with the issuing of paper bills that are sent out, storage room landlords could charge additional fees to the monthly rent. Your payment method can also influence the rental bill. Here, card payments and payments on invoice are usually associated with further costs, while Direct Debit/direct debit is normally free of charge. Added to this are so-called one-time administration fees, which some landlords charge if the contract was concluded by phone or at a personal meeting.
Extraordinary services like moving helpers & companies
When you set up your budget for storage, you must not only take costs into consideration that are directly related to the monthly storage rent. To accommodate your things in the storage facility, you will need transport and possibly also moving helpers or moving companies. Rental cars with large loading capacity, professional moving helpers, and moving companies do not come cheap, and even if you plan the storage under your own direction, further transport costs could be added. Your own car and that of friends who help with the move will possibly need several trips and thus incur costs in fuel and time. Furthermore, it is recommended to take out an additional insurance for the storage, in order to better cover damages to both goods and persons who could injure themselves while lugging.
4 Practical tips to save on storage costs
Before you start worrying about whether you can afford an off-site storage unit at all, you should look at the following tips for saving on Selfstorage and storage costs:
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- Compare providers: Invest some time in the search for the storage space landlord that best meets your needs. Create a checklist of the services that you absolutely need. Find a landlord who meets your requirements, ideally at a flat rate.
- Suitable location: Do not just look for storage spaces in your immediate vicinity or that of your workplace. In most cases, you are better served renting a storage unit outside the metropolitan areas. Not only will the rent turn out cheaper there, but you also save the trouble of traffic jams and the search for a parking space.
- Space-saving and efficient packing: Plan and structure your storage by stowing your items as space-savingly as possible. Use sturdy moving boxes and storage boxes. Thereby your things are not only best secured against environmental influences, but you also ease the task of measuring to determine the required storage space. Stackable plastic crates reduce the required storage space and thus also the rent.
- Forgo seemingly attractive, but unnecessary services: Quite honestly: How often do you have to rush to the Selfstorage at 2 a.m. to pick something up? Around the clock access sounds promising, but is really necessary in the fewest cases. And your book collection, old clothes, or disused electronics perhaps do not have to be accommodated in Fort Knox if the costs for high-technological security precautions do not reflect the market value of the stored items.
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Where is the best storage space in my vicinity?
To give you an overview of the common prices in the individual federal states and cities, we have put together an interactive map for you. Click on your city to see how much you have to pay on average per square meter for a storage space.
This data represents storage prices per m² in Germany from January to July 2025; collected April 16 and published May 5, 2026.
If you are worried about the additional costs and security with the storage of your items, you should best select a storage space landlord who offers flat rates. Selfstorage and storage space landlords with flat rates may indeed be more expensive at first glance with regard to the square meter price, but on the other hand offer a better overview of the offered services and thus facilitate budgeting for you.
Furthermore, a Full-Service-Storage could offer a solution, especially if you want to save time besides money. Full-Service-Storage includes not only the safekeeping and professional securing of your items, but also the transport from your front door to the storage facility and the professional storing optimized for saving space. Full-Service-Storage providers like BOXIE24 operate exclusively with flat rates, which include the security measures, the air conditioning of the storage facility, the transport, the storage, and often also the return of your items in the final rental price.
