"Sometimes our clients store their household wares here so that they could rent out an extra room," said Chen who started the business about one year ago. "We've got both individual and corporate clients, and the majority of our customers are either white-collar workers or foreigners."

Chen said winter and spring are the industry's busiest seasons because those are the times when people start spring cleaning for the Chinese New Year. "Currently about 30 percent to 40 percent of our 1,000 private storehouses are rented out," he said.

The occupancy rate is around 10 to 20 percent during the low season.

Youyou Space was Chen's first venture in the self-storage business.

He said that his current business is operated out of rented space, but he plans to expand by purchasing his own facilities in the future.

Easy Storage, which opened its first business in Shanghai last August, has already established four outlets within six months. "We rent out the space for about 200 yuan per cubic meter and the 2-cubic-meter one is the most popular," said Lei Yongsheng, a member of Easy Storage's promotional staff.

Lei added that the company just opened new space for wine storage in February for the relatively high-end clients but did not say the exact rent.

The idea of self-storage came from abroad, and it is short for self-service storage.

Louis Hill, a representative of Drivers Jonas Deloitte, a chartered surveyor in the United Kingdom that helps the Self Storage Association UK (SSA) to prepare its annual report, wrote in an e-mail that he looks forward to increasing business in China. "There's likely to be a great future for self-storage in China because it gives great lifestyle flexibility and convenience," said Hill.

China Daily