CubeSmart (NYSE:CUBE) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

I think that would be a catalyst towards movement. I think in the long run obviously we think this is a fabulous business has been for the 29 years, I’ve been in it I think it will be fabulous for the next 29 years, because we have a consumer in the United States who likes possessions, moves around, obviously very motivated to own and move up and down, the ladder on a single-family home perspective. So feel pretty constructive about it. I think when that happens, my crystal ball is not that good.

Tim Martin: I think you add to that, that you’re in a period of change here getting from the abnormal levels that we all enjoyed for two years. And we’ve talked about it now for the past 12 or 18 months that we’re on that return to normal or return to the new normal which we think is a little bit better than the old normal ultimately. But during that change, certainly, you’re going to have different strategies to try to capture your share or more than your share of what overall is a declining level of overall consumer demand for the product. And so I think, I think during that period of change, it’s — we’re seeing noise. And we’re seeing actions taken by some and reactions from others. I think ultimately, when you see it start to stabilize as when we get to that new normal and then, folks take a step back and say, okay, where do we go from here?

We go back to Chris’ when we go back to where we’ve been forever as a sector and say now that we have more stability and we have better insight into consumer demand, and we’ve kind of reset then I think pricing strategies go back to what they’ve always been, which is from there you grow. And from there you maximize revenues and as a sector we’ve been pretty good at doing that.

Juan Sanabria: Okay. Thank you.

Operator: Thank you. And your next question comes from the line of Kassandra Fieber from Truist Securities. Please go ahead.

Kassandra Fieber: Good morning, and thanks for taking my question. So I’m curious given the intensified competitive landscape that you’ve already talked about, what has been the current existing customer rate increases? And what pace are you thinking after we look at 2024? And also have you noticed any changes in customer behavior recently that has changed your ability to push your rate increases now in 2024 view, if we could your thoughts around that?

Chris Marr: Thanks Kassandra. We’ve been averaging over the last quarter and here into this month of October, November right around 15% in terms of the average increase. We track the customers as they receive an increase again some zero, some — the amounts vary, but that’s the average. We have not seen any changes in the consumer behavior as a result of that program. We think our consumer and our customer continues to be very resilient. We think the makeup of our portfolio leads us to a customer who has a tendency to stay longer. And so all positives on that front as we go out into 2024, we don’t anticipate any major changes in that environment. So that’s kind of as we’re thinking about things going out into next year at this point. So thanks for the question. I think that answers it.

Kassandra Fieber: Okay, yeah. That’s helpful. And then you mentioned that you’ve cut rate as a result of the increasing competition and we’ve seen Street rates as they continue to decline. If you could share, if you know what are Street rates today versus 2020-2019 levels? And then also if you could share, what percentage of your total customers are below in-place rent currently?

Chris Marr: Sure. So the first question I believe was rates today relative to 2019 levels, rates today are up about 17% versus those 2019 levels. And your second question was the percentage of customers who are currently below Street?