The Self Storage Association Asia (SSAA) has established Asia’s first standards and certification programme for Hong Kong. The SAFE Self Storage Standards will promote regulatory compliance, best practice and accountability in the self storage industry across the region.

The SAFE Self Storage Standards follows Fire Service Department (FSD) and Building Department (BD) guidelines to promote safe and regulatory-compliant working and self-storage environments. Applicants must pass a rigorous, independent, government Authorised Person (AP) approved process to receive a Gold, Silver or Bronze Certificate for each location.

Gold Certificates will indicate a site is compliant with BD and FSD fire regulations at the time of inspection and will be valid for three years.

Silver Certificates will indicate plans to bring a site into compliance are AP approved and will be valid for one year while the operator is completing renovations.

Bronze Certificates indicate plans for a new (yet to be built) site are AP approved and should, when built, provide for an AP approved site. They are targeted at the business community.

Chair of the Self Storage Association Asia, Helen Ng said, “Consumers and businesses alike will use this AP approved process to have confidence in the self storage sites they choose to do business with.”

The SSAA has appointed an independent real estate consultancy, Knight Frank, to exclusively manage the implementation of the programme and independently assess self storage facilities in Hong Kong. The SSAA will maintain oversight and provide an online reference for those seeking to authenticate the status of certified operators and their sites.

Calvin Chan, Director and Head of Building Services at Knight Frank said, “Knight Frank is proud to assist in the elevation of self storage standards in Hong Kong. This will be an invaluable decision-making factor for institutional investors, commercial lenders, insurance companies and financiers making decisions about doing business with self storage operators. Consumers and businesses will be able to have peace of mind knowing that APs have signed off on the sites represented on the SAFE website.”

Executive Director of SSAA, Andrew Work, added, “More companies are applying and more sites of these firms will be added in the coming months as they pass the AP process. We look forward to the vast majority of locations owned by reputable companies joining the programme in the next 12 to 24 months.”

SSAA is a non-profit industry body representing the self storage and valet storage industry across Asia and supporting members to drive best practices and professionalism across the storage sector.  

Photo: Andrew Work (L) with members of Hong Kong’s self storage industry.