Outrageous rental increases, sometimes twice a year

I don’t think that necessary to write a review, that condemns a company, for the slightest infringement that was done to my person. After all, we’ve all had days when our performance at work has been less than stellar. However, if a company exhibits a continuous pattern of poor or outrageous business practices then I do think a review of the company in question is helpful for the general public. One such company is Stor-Age.

I rented a 21 square meter self-storage unit from Stor-Age in Bloemfontein from June 2022 to August 2025. Now as they say in the classics: I have some good news and I have some bad news, what would you like to hear first?

The good news: When the contact was initially e-mailed to me, the staff I dealt with were professional and I signed the contact without reserve. I was not on site to personally inspect the facility before I signed, so I was relieved to see that the site was well kept, when my goods arrived. Having rented space there for just over three years I can confirm that the Bloemfontein management and ground staff are all courteous and professional. The facility is well maintained and besides the poor quality/flimsy roller door on my unit, I did not have a single issue with my goods that were stored there.

The bad news: You would have noticed that I gave Stor-Age a single star for poor performance, despite the glowing review in “The good news” and this was easily earned by Stor-Age for their outrageous rental increases. Let’s detail the dates, the rental amount including VAT and the subsequent percentage increases: June 2022: R2099 January 2023: R2380 – 13.4% Increase from R2099, 6 months later. October 2023: R2650 – 11.3% Increase from R2380, 10 months later. July 2024: R2970 – 12.1% Increase from R2650, 9 months later. July 2025: R3200 – 7.7% Increase from R2970, 12 months later.

Note that all the price increases, besides the last one, were all double-digit percentage increases, far higher than inflation. The rental increases were not annual, besides the last one, but seem to occur at whim. Even more alarmingly is to note that I had two, double digit increases in one year in 2023!

Thus, when I vacated the unit after 3 years and two months, I was paying 52.4% more in rent than when I first moved in. South Africa had a CPI (Consumer Price Inflation) of between 6.9% and 4.4% for 2022 to 2024. Let’s assume that Stor-Age increased my rental, annually, by a high 7%, then in three years I should have had a price increase of 21% not 52.4%.

The outrageous price increases and not the facility is the reason for my conclusion: Avoid.