On this page of StockholderLetter.com we present the latest annual shareholder letter from SmartStop Self Storage REIT, Inc. — ticker symbol SMA. Reading current and past SMA letters to shareholders can bring important insights into the investment thesis.
Annual Report 2024
2 2024 Annual Report Contents Chairman s Letter 4 2024 Performance and Portfolio 7 High-Growth North American Markets 9 Financial Highlights 10 Investment Highlights 11 Key Growth Markets in Canada 12 Integrated Proprietary Operations Platform 14 Environmental Initiatives 15 Awards and Accolades 17 Our Values 18
Cover: SmartStop Self Storage - 123 Streetname Ave, Somewhere, California SmartStop Self Storage REIT, Inc. SmartStop Self Storage - 87 Goulding Ave, Aurora, Ontario L4G 0C9, Canada We ve continued to follow our overall strategy of growing in a disciplined manner in 2024, and we ve built a considerable amount of momentum heading into 2025. 3
4 2024 Annual Report Chairman s Letter Dear Fellow Stockholders, I am excited to present our 2024 Annual Report for SmartStop Self Storage REIT, Inc. ( SmartStop ) (NYSE:SMA), now a publicly listed company on the New York Stock Exchange. We ve continued to follow our overall strategy of growing in a disciplined manner in 2024, and we ve built considerable momentum heading into 2025. Here is what has made SmartStop special for more than a decade: SmartStop is a highquality, North American self-storage company with a diversi ed portfolio, a dedicated team of professionals and a state-of-the-art technology stack, focused on driving both performance and growth in the coming years. Self-Storage Operating Environment The self-storage sector faced a challenging environment in 2024, lacking some of the recent demand drivers that had buoyed previous years, such as COVID-driven work-from-home trends or a robust housing market. While those de ned areas of demand were muted in 2024, there is still demand for exible storage space in the U.S. and Canada that is convenient, well-located, and secure. Our diversi ed portfolio weathered this shifting demand landscape, producing positive same-store revenue growth for the full year, outperforming the publicly traded peer average. In addition, our portfolio maintained strong occupancies, averaging more than 92% for the full year. Most importantly, we nished the year on a strong footing, progressively increasing our same-store revenue into the fourth quarter, putting our portfolio in a position of strength heading into the new year and busy season. Lastly, our Canadian portfolio continued to be a strong performer, maintaining high occupancies and growing revenue at a higher same-store rate than our U.S. portfolio. This is after multiple years of Toronto being one of our bestperforming markets. Technology-Driven Operations Platform We continue to invest in and re ne our operations platform, which we call dash , which has helped us maintain our overall performance in this new self-storage environment. Our platform meets the customer on their terms, whether through our state-of-the-art smartstop.com or smartstop.ca websites, our in-house call center, or our safe and secure retail offices. This platform is a key reason for our ability to drive occupancy and, as a result, revenues, during 2024, attracting strong lead ow and converting leads at an increasing level. One interesting trend in the self-storage space is the increasing utilization of technology as a source of rental leads. In 2024, approximately 50 percent of our new customers had rented a unit directly through our call center or website, without ever having stepped foot on a SmartStop property, well above the levels of contactless rentals we saw during the peak of COVID. This is another example of how having a fully developed technology operating platform is not just a positive, but a requirement, to producing strong self-storage results. Our platform and customer experience are fully powered by our backend algorithms, both on the digital marketing and pricing side of the business. We continue making more than one million individual pricing changes monthly, with little human interaction. Our marketing team oversees sophisticated keyword bidding models, focusing on getting the best digital footprints at the lowest cost in our local markets. All of this technological sophistication is continually improving with an ever-growing data warehouse, with more than 24 billion datapoints, and growing each month. Lastly, subsequent to year-end, we were proud to announce the launch of the SmartStop Self Storage mobile app, which not only gives our customers additional ways to interact with their units in a convenient way but also provides additional insights to our technology systems. Expanding Our Presence in Canada SmartStop continues to position itself as the premier operator of self storage in the Canadian market. While we were already the fth-largest self-storage operator in the country to begin 2024, we continued to expand in key markets of Edmonton and Toronto, adding ve properties and approximately 384,000 net rentable square feet in our portfolio. Included in that count were three developments completed within our SmartCentres joint venture, which continues to help scale our platform nationwide.
SmartStop Self Storage REIT, Inc. Furthermore, we continue to have some of our best results in the entire portfolio in the Toronto market, which has proven to outperform given its favorable supply and demand dynamics. As of year-end, we owned or managed 38 operating self-storage properties in Canada, totaling approximately 3.4 million rentable square feet across three provinces. We look forward to opening our rst managed asset in Montr al in 2025, as well as expanding our presence in Vancouver, Edmonton, and, of course, Toronto. External Growth While we have remained disciplined in our acquisition strategy over the past couple of years, the environment for new acquisitions has become much more constructive, beginning in the back half of 2024. During the year, we acquired eight high-occupancy properties totaling approximately 689,000 net rentable square feet, with more than half of that total coming in the fourth quarter. That acquisition activity continued in early 2025, as we saw, and continue to see, more opportunities to grow accretively. In addition to growing on balance sheet, we continued to scale the Managed REIT Platform, primarily with activity completed subsequent to year-end. While overall Assets Under Management (AUM) for the Managed REIT Platform were approximately $785 million at year-end 2024, that number increased to nearly $900 million within the rst three months of 2025. This AUM gives SmartStop accretive cash ows from fees, allowing us to continue growing this highly scalable platform. In Closing We are grateful to all our stockholders, who have been a part of building one of the worlds most dynamic self-storage companies. Together, and with the hard work of our approximately 590 dedicated team members, we have constructed a high-quality portfolio, a highly scalable self-storage platform, a sizeable and growing presence in Canada, and a management team that is prepared to make SmartStop successful as a publicly traded company. Continued successes, H. Michael Schwartz Founder, Chairman and CEO 5
 • shareholder letter icon 5/9/2025 Letter Continued (Full PDF)
 • stockholder letter icon 4/12/2023 SMA Stockholder Letter
 • stockholder letter icon 4/12/2024 SMA Stockholder Letter
 • stockholder letter icon More "REITs" Category Stockholder Letters


SMA Shareholder/Stockholder Letter Transcript:

Annual Report 2024

2
2024 Annual Report
Contents
Chairman   s Letter
4
2024 Performance and Portfolio
7
High-Growth North American Markets
9
Financial Highlights
10
Investment Highlights
11
Key Growth Markets in Canada
12
Integrated Proprietary Operations Platform
14
Environmental Initiatives
15
Awards and Accolades
17
Our Values
18

Cover: SmartStop Self Storage - 123 Streetname Ave, Somewhere, California
SmartStop Self Storage REIT, Inc.
SmartStop Self Storage - 87 Goulding Ave, Aurora, Ontario L4G 0C9, Canada
We   ve continued to follow our overall
strategy of growing in a disciplined manner
in 2024, and we   ve built a considerable
amount of momentum heading into 2025.
3

4
2024 Annual Report
Chairman   s Letter
Dear Fellow Stockholders,
I am excited to present our 2024 Annual
Report for SmartStop Self Storage REIT, Inc.
(   SmartStop   ) (NYSE:SMA), now a publicly listed
company on the New York Stock Exchange.
We   ve continued to follow our overall strategy
of growing in a disciplined manner in 2024, and
we   ve built considerable momentum heading into
2025. Here is what has made SmartStop special
for more than a decade: SmartStop is a highquality, North American self-storage company
with a diversi   ed portfolio, a dedicated team of
professionals and a state-of-the-art technology
stack, focused on driving both performance and
growth in the coming years.
Self-Storage Operating Environment
The self-storage sector faced a challenging
environment in 2024, lacking some of the recent
demand drivers that had buoyed previous years,
such as COVID-driven work-from-home trends
or a robust housing market. While those de   ned
areas of demand were muted in 2024, there is
still demand for    exible storage space in the U.S.
and Canada that is convenient, well-located,
and secure.
Our diversi   ed portfolio weathered this shifting
demand landscape, producing positive
same-store revenue growth for the full year,
outperforming the publicly traded peer average.
In addition, our portfolio maintained strong
occupancies, averaging more than 92% for the
full year. Most importantly, we    nished the year
on a strong footing, progressively increasing
our same-store revenue into the fourth quarter,
putting our portfolio in a position of strength
heading into the new year and busy season.
Lastly, our Canadian portfolio continued to be a
strong performer, maintaining high occupancies
and growing revenue at a higher same-store
rate than our U.S. portfolio. This is after multiple
years of Toronto being one of our bestperforming markets.
Technology-Driven Operations Platform
We continue to invest in and re   ne our operations
platform, which we call dash   , which has helped
us maintain our overall performance in this new
self-storage environment. Our platform meets
the customer on their terms, whether through our
state-of-the-art smartstop.com or smartstop.ca
websites, our in-house call center, or our safe and
secure retail offices. This platform is a key reason
for our ability to drive occupancy and, as a result,
revenues, during 2024, attracting strong lead    ow
and converting leads at an increasing level.
One interesting trend in the self-storage space
is the increasing utilization of technology as a
source of rental leads. In 2024, approximately
50 percent of our new customers had rented a
unit directly through our call center or website,
without ever having stepped foot on a SmartStop
property, well above the levels of contactless
rentals we saw during the peak of COVID. This is
another example of how having a fully developed
technology operating platform is not just a
positive, but a requirement, to producing strong
self-storage results.
Our platform and customer experience are fully
powered by our backend algorithms, both on the
digital marketing and pricing side of the business.
We continue making more than one million
individual pricing changes monthly, with little
human interaction. Our marketing team oversees
sophisticated keyword bidding models, focusing
on getting the best digital footprints at the lowest
cost in our local markets. All of this technological
sophistication is continually improving with an
ever-growing data warehouse, with more than
24 billion datapoints, and growing each month.
Lastly, subsequent to year-end, we were proud
to announce the launch of the SmartStop Self
Storage mobile app, which not only gives our
customers additional ways to interact with their
units in a convenient way but also provides
additional insights to our technology systems.
Expanding Our Presence in Canada
SmartStop continues to position itself as the
premier operator of self storage in the Canadian
market. While we were already the    fth-largest
self-storage operator in the country to begin
2024, we continued to expand in key markets of
Edmonton and Toronto, adding    ve properties
and approximately 384,000 net rentable square
feet in our portfolio. Included in that count
were three developments completed within our
SmartCentres joint venture, which continues to
help scale our platform nationwide.

SmartStop Self Storage REIT, Inc.
Furthermore, we continue to have some of our best
results in the entire portfolio in the Toronto market,
which has proven to outperform given its favorable
supply and demand dynamics. As of year-end,
we owned or managed 38 operating self-storage
properties in Canada, totaling approximately 3.4
million rentable square feet across three provinces. We
look forward to opening our    rst managed asset in
Montr  al in 2025, as well as expanding our presence
in Vancouver, Edmonton, and, of course, Toronto.
External Growth
While we have remained disciplined in our
acquisition strategy over the past couple of years,
the environment for new acquisitions has become
much more constructive, beginning in the back
half of 2024. During the year, we acquired eight
high-occupancy properties totaling approximately
689,000 net rentable square feet, with more than
half of that total coming in the fourth quarter. That
acquisition activity continued in early 2025, as we
saw, and continue to see, more opportunities to
grow accretively.
In addition to growing on balance sheet, we
continued to scale the Managed REIT Platform,
primarily with activity completed subsequent to
year-end. While overall Assets Under Management
(AUM) for the Managed REIT Platform were
approximately $785 million at year-end 2024, that
number increased to nearly $900 million within
the    rst three months of 2025. This AUM gives
SmartStop accretive cash    ows from fees, allowing
us to continue growing this highly scalable platform.
In Closing
We are grateful to all our stockholders, who have
been a part of building one of the worlds    most
dynamic self-storage companies. Together, and with
the hard work of our approximately 590 dedicated
team members, we have constructed a high-quality
portfolio, a highly scalable self-storage platform,
a sizeable and growing presence in Canada, and
a management team that is prepared to make
SmartStop successful as a publicly traded company.
Continued successes,
H. Michael Schwartz
Founder, Chairman and CEO
5



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