NEW YORK CITY—W. P. Carey Inc. said Thursday it had capped 2014 with seven separate self-storage acquisitions totaling $53 million. The asset purchases, via the company's CPA:18—Global non-traded REIT affiliate, bring WPC's investments in the self-storage sector to more than $100 million for the year.

The acquisitions add more than 439,000 square feet and north of 4,000 units to the net lease REIT's self-storage portfolio. The properties are located in Temecula, CA; Jensen Beach and Pompano Beach, FL; Cumming, GA; Kailua-Kona, HI; and Dickinson and Humble, TX.

Five of the properties will be managed by Extra Space Storage and two will be managed by CubeSmart. Liz Raun Schlesinger, managing director at WPC, says the company is already working with Extra Space Storage and CubeSmart on other self-storage assets around the US and believes that the two companies' ability to manage these assets will enhance their long-term value “in conjunction with our own storage expertise.”

Schlesinger's WPC colleague, managing director Anne Coolidge Taylor, says the company has been active in self-storage since 2004. “We currently own 78 net-leased U-Haul self-storage properties and manage an additional 85 operating assets on behalf of our managed REITs, for a total of approximately 10 million net rentable square feet,” she says.

The self-storage focus demonstrated by WPC and other companies is understandable when, as a report from Ernst & Young makes clear, the sector is a cash cow. In particular, it's opportune for private equity.

“It's lucrative because these buildings cash flow like crazy and deliver a high yield,” Karen Ward, co-head of real estate capital markets for Ernst & Young capital Advisors, told GlobeSt.com earlier this month. “There's high year-over-year growth in rent because there are only so many places to store things. Average asking monthly rent in 2013 for an average 10-foot-by-10-foot unit in the US was $115 a month. Now, some of our clients are getting 6% to 15% higher than that. Also, several years ago occupancy was 70% to 80%. Now the public REITs are seeing 80% to 90% occupancy.”