De behoefte aan een opslagruimte herken je meestal vrij snel. You usually recognize the need for a storage unit pretty quickly. After a move, a renovation, or a simple big clear-out, the same question keeps coming back: where on earth are you supposed to put all that stuff? External storage offers an obvious solution in that case. What is far less clear, however, is the price you have to pay to give your household goods, furniture, tools and so on a new and safe home.
A storage unit in the Netherlands costs an average of € 22.50 per m² per month. The final price for a storage space depends on several factors, including your location, the surface area you need, and any special requirements regarding the storage conditions for your belongings. As a rule, you should reckon with at least € 50 and up to more than € 250 per month.
Below we give a clear overview of how the prices for storage space and self storage are structured, and what rates you will be offered on the Dutch market.
How are the rent and the price of a storage unit structured?
Before you start looking for a storage unit or a suitable self storage, you need to look into a number of key factors that determine the final costs for your storage space, and therefore also your budget:
- How much storage space do you need in square metres (m²) or possibly in volume (m³), if your belongings can be stacked well vertically? The more surface area you rent, the lower the price per square metre generally becomes.
- How long do you want to rent the storage space? With a rental period over a longer term, the monthly price usually drops.
- Do you need certain services, such as camera surveillance, insurance, climate control and so on? Then you should generally reckon with additional costs.
- Does the storage space need to be in your immediate vicinity, or are you willing to drive a few extra kilometres? Centrally located self storage units or storage warehouses in major cities are considerably more expensive than locations situated outside urban centre areas.
Prices by size: how much space do you really need?
The more square metres you rent, the higher the monthly rent for your storage space adds up. However, you will quickly notice that at the same time the actual price per square metre drops.
According to our research, a small storage box of one square metre costs an average of around €33 per m² per month. If you rent 5 m², for example for office supplies purchased in bulk, sports equipment or tools, you will indeed pay clearly more rent in total, but the actual price per square metre drops to €22.86 per m².
In the case of a move or renovation, where you also need to store larger pieces of furniture and multiple moving boxes, the price per square metre drops to approximately €16 to €17, less than half the €33 per square metre you started with.
Keep in mind with these figures, however, that they are averages, based on collected prices from across the Netherlands and do not take into account individual local differences. For example, the prices per square metre in expensive cities such as Leiderdorp (€30.40), Haarlem (€30.17) and Heemstede (€29.72) are far above the national average. At the same time, the price per square metre in cheaper cities such as Heerenveen (€12.96), Hengelo (€15.84) and Nijmegen (€16.92) is considerably lower than the averages.
When looking for a storage space for your belongings, you should therefore take the location of your storage unit into account alongside the average rate when calculating your rent.
Where is storage space cheaper or more expensive? Rates by location
As a rule of thumb: storage space is expensive in cities where rental prices for homes and houses are also high. There, many tenants are forced to make do with less living space, and they compensate for that smaller space by storing household goods and belongings they do not need on a daily basis externally. The lack of living space increases the demand for storage spaces and self storage units, and thereby determines the price to a certain extent.
On top of that, there are large differences in rental price when you choose a storage space outside the city centre. In most cases, you will find considerably more affordable self storage units and storage warehouses on business parks and in industrial areas on the outskirts of the city or in surrounding municipalities. In addition, many self storage providers nowadays choose locations that are easily accessible via a motorway exit.
The most expensive places to rent storage space in the Netherlands are in the Randstad: municipalities such as Leiderdorp, Haarlem, Heemstede and Oegstgeest top the list, followed by Amsterdam, Amstelveen, Utrecht and The Hague. Surrounding municipalities such as Zaandam and Ridderkerk are also well above the national average.
Among the places where you can rent storage space most cheaply in the Netherlands are Heerenveen, Hengelo and Nijmegen, but Gouda, Kerkrade, Capelle aan den IJssel, Middelburg, Veldhoven, Oss and Dordrecht are also clearly more affordable than the national average.
Not in all cases are residential rental prices the determining factor for high storage rates. Since the COVID period, the number of vacant commercial properties has increased considerably in major cities as well. These empty spaces are often converted by self storage and storage providers into valuable storage space, to the benefit of tenants who are short on space. So if you are looking for a storage space in Amsterdam or Rotterdam, for example, you can sometimes find an attractive rate there thanks to the supply of available commercial properties, despite the high residential rents.
Why does the price vary? Influence of rental period, facilities and services
Location and the surface area of the rented space, as already mentioned above, are not the only factors that determine the final rental price of a storage unit. Sometimes tenants of storage units discover when comparing that they pay different amounts despite the same surface area and location. That usually has nothing to do with the sales department of the storage provider finding one person more likeable than the other. The differences in rental price are mainly the result of agreements made on the basis of the personal preferences and special needs of the individual customer.
When the self storage or storage provider calculates the monthly bill, they take the following points into account:
The rental period
The duration of the rental contract is of decisive importance for the monthly rental price of a storage unit. Those who commit to a longer rental period are generally rewarded with more favourable terms and discounts.
Flexible contracts, where the tenant cannot fix the required time and/or surface area of the storage space for personal reasons, and short rental contracts often turn out to be considerably more expensive.
Many storage providers also give additional discounts, for example when the tenant pays the bill for the full agreed rental period in one go upfront.
Climate control and additional services
Depending on the self storage or storage provider, additional costs such as climate control, ventilation, access to electricity and/or water and building cleaning are often charged on top of the monthly rental price. The right to 24/7 access can also increase the final rental price.
These additional services are particularly important when you are looking for a storage unit for business reasons. The way in which your belongings are stored is then not only relevant to you personally, but also to your customers and employees, among others.
Security and access control
Whether you rent storage space for personal or business reasons, you want to be sure that your belongings are safe from access by unauthorised persons. Adequate security therefore has the highest priority.
Here, different storage providers offer widely varying services. Most self storage and storage providers do have some form of on-site security, but the extent of those facilities varies considerably per provider, and you will also see that reflected in your rental invoice. Where one provider offers a form of camera surveillance, for example, another goes further with units monitored via an app that activate individual locks and space monitoring.
Yet other providers, such as full service storage companies like BOXIE24, restrict public access so strictly from the outset that unauthorised persons cannot get anywhere near your belongings at all.
The aforementioned services can in many cases be added to the base rent. It is therefore important that you read the small print in your rental contract thoroughly.
With some providers, however, these services are included in the package as standard and are already incorporated into the rental price. The cheapest is therefore not necessarily the best.
Hidden additional costs: insurance, moving assistance and administration
In addition to the fairly obvious additional costs mentioned above, some self storage and storage providers may include a number of hidden costs on the bill that you may not have accounted for. These include:
Insurance
As a rule, the belongings you put into storage are covered by your home contents insurance. Many providers therefore ask for proof of insurance when signing the rental contract.
However, most home contents insurance policies only cover storage outside your home or business premises for a limited period. Added to this, concerns regarding the market value of business goods in storage are often insufficiently covered by a standard liability insurance for storage.
In both cases, the self storage or storage provider can generally offer additional insurance, which however increases the rental price. Therefore check with your own insurer which conditions apply in your situation.
Administration fees
In some cases, for example when sending paper invoices, storage providers can charge additional costs on top of the monthly rent. Your method of payment can also affect the rental invoice. For example, credit card payments and payments by invoice are generally associated with extra costs, while iDEAL and direct debit (SEPA) are normally free of charge.
On top of that come so-called one-off administration fees, which some providers charge when the contract is concluded by telephone or at a personal appointment.
Special services such as moving assistance & removal companies
When you draw up your budget for storage, you need to take into account not only the costs directly related to the monthly rent. To get your belongings to the storage location you will need transport, and possibly also moving assistance or a removal company.
Vans with a large loading capacity, professional movers and removal companies are not cheap. And even if you want to arrange the storage yourself, further transport costs may arise.
With your own car and those of friends helping with the move, multiple trips may be needed under certain circumstances, which means costs in both fuel and time. In addition, it is advisable to take out additional insurance for the storage, so that both damage to your belongings and injuries to persons who may be hurt while carrying are better covered.
4 Practical tips to save on storage costs
Before you start worrying about whether you can afford an external storage unit at all, it is good to go through the following tips for saving on self storage and storage costs:
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- Compare providers: invest some time in finding the storage provider that best suits your needs. Make a checklist of the services you really need. Then find a provider that meets your requirements, preferably at a fixed, all-in price.
- Suitable location: do not only look for storage spaces in the direct vicinity of your home or workplace. In most cases, you are better off with a storage unit outside the Randstad or outside the city centre. Not only will the rent be lower, you will also save yourself the traffic and parking problems.
- Pack smartly and efficiently: plan and structure your storage by packing your belongings as compactly as possible. Use sturdy moving boxes and storage boxes. This not only protects your belongings better against external influences, but also makes measuring the required storage space considerably easier. Stackable plastic crates reduce the required surface area, and thereby also your rental price.
- Skip seemingly attractive but unnecessary services: let’s be honest, how often do you really need to go to your self storage at 2 in the morning to retrieve something? 24/7 access sounds promising, but is in most cases not really necessary. And your book collection, old clothes or written-off electronics may not need to be in a bunker when the costs of high-tech security are out of proportion to the market value of what you are storing.
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Where can I find the best storage space in my area?
To give you an overview of the common prices per province and city, we have put together an interactive map for you. Click on your city to see how much you pay on average per square metre for a storage space.
If you are concerned about the additional costs and the security of your belongings in storage, it is best to choose a storage provider that works with all-in prices. Self storage and storage providers with all-in prices may seem more expensive at first glance in terms of price per square metre, but at the same time offer a much clearer overview of the services provided and make budgeting considerably easier.
In addition, full service storage can be a solution, especially when you want to save not only money but also time. With full service storage, not only the storage and the correct security of your belongings come into play, but also the transport from your front door to the storage location and the expert, space-saving optimised loading. Full service storage providers such as BOXIE24 work exclusively with all-in prices, in which the security measures, the climate control of the storage location, the transport, the storage and often also the return of your belongings are already incorporated into the final rental price.
