Public Storage

“Our property tax expense, generally depends upon the assessed value of our real estate facilities as determined by assessors and government agencies and, accordingly, could be subject to substantial increases if such agencies change their valuation approaches or opinions or if new laws are enacted, especially if new approaches are adopted or laws are enacted that result in increased property tax assessments in states or geographies where we have a high concentration of facilities. See also “We have exposure to increased property tax in California” below.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Competition in the local market areas in which many of our properties are located is significant and affects our occupancy levels, rental rates, and operating expenses, particularly advertising costs.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“There may be an increasing influx of capital from outside financing sources driving more money, development, and supply into the industry. Development of self-storage facilities may increase, which may intensify competition as newly developed facilities are opened. Development of self-storage facilities by other operators could increase, due to increases in availability of funds for investment or other reasons, and further intensify competition.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“We may incur significant liabilities from environmental contamination or moisture infiltration. Existing or future laws impose or may impose liability on us to clean up environmental contamination on or around properties that we currently or previously owned or operated, even if we were not responsible for or aware of the environmental contamination or even if such environmental contamination occurred prior to our involvement with the property.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“We are the industry leading owner of self-storage properties, with one of the most recognized brands in the self-storage industry, including our ubiquitous orange color.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“However, we believe that the economies of scale inherent in this business allow us to operate self-storage facilities at a materially higher level of cash flow per square foot than other operators without our scale.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Growth and Investment Strategies Our ongoing growth strategies consist of: (i) improving the operating performance of our existing self-storage facilities, (ii) acquiring, expanding and developing facilities, and (iii) growing ancillary business activities including tenant reinsurance, third-party management services and our bridge lending program.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Improve the operating performance of existing facilities: We regularly update and enhance our strategies to increase the net cash flow of our existing self-storage facilities through maximizing revenues and controlling operating costs. We maximize revenues through striking the appropriate balance between occupancy and rates for new and existing tenants by regularly adjusting (i) our promotional and other discounts, (ii) the rental rates we charge to new and existing tenants, and (iii) our marketing spending and intensity.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Acquire existing properties: We seek to capitalize on the fragmentation of the self-storage industry through acquiring attractively priced, well-located existing self-storage facilities. We believe our presence in and knowledge of substantially all of the major markets in the U.S. enhance our ability to identify attractive acquisition opportunities.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Develop new self-storage facilities and expand existing facilities: The development of new self-storage locations and the expansion of existing facilities have been an important source of our growth. Our operating experience in major markets and experience in stabilizing new properties provide us advantages in developing new facilities.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Our third party management business enables us to generate revenues through management fees, expand our presence, increase our economies of scale, promote our brand, and enhance our ability to acquire additional facilities over the medium and long-term as a result of strategic relationships forged with third-party owners. We also provide bridge lending financing to third-party self-storage owners.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“General Discussion of our Business Public Storage is a Maryland real estate investment trust (“REIT”) engaged in the ownership, development, and operation of self-storage facilities and other related operations including tenant reinsurance, third-party self-storage management and bridge lending to third-party self-storage owners.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Self-storage Operations: We acquire, develop, own, and operate self-storage facilities, which offer storage spaces for lease on a month-to-month basis, for personal and business use. We are the largest owner of self-storage facilities in the United States (“U.S.”), with physical presence in most major markets and 40 states.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“At December 31, 2025, we held interests in and consolidated 3,171 self-storage facilities (an aggregate of 229 million net rentable square feet of space) operating under the Public Storage® name.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“At December 31, 2025, we managed 362 facilities for third parties (with approximately 28.2 million net rentable square feet), and were under contract to manage 84 additional facilities including 78 facilities that are currently under construction.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“The oldest facilities are comprised generally of multiple single-story buildings, and have on average approximately 500 primarily “drive up” spaces per facility, and a small rental office. Recently constructed facilities have higher density footprints with large, multi-story buildings with climate control and typically 1,000 or more self-storage spaces, and a prominent and large rental office designed to appeal to customers as an attractive and retail-focused “store.””

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“We could be subject to increases in property or other taxes, repair and maintenance costs, payroll, utility costs, insurance premiums, workers compensation, and other operating expenses due to various factors such as inflation, labor shortages, commodity and energy price increases, weather, increases to minimum wage rates, supply chain disruptions, and changes to governmental safety and real estate use limitations and other governmental actions.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“There are significant risks involved in developing self-storage facilities, such as delays, cost increases, or inability to complete development projects due to changes in or failure to meet government or regulatory requirements, failure of revenue to meet our underwriting estimates, delays caused by weather issues, unforeseen site conditions, or personnel problems.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Our employees have been and may in the future be subject to unionization efforts. These activities could lead to labor disruptions which could adversely impact our ability to operate our business and could negatively impact our reputation.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“However, our level of development is dependent upon many factors, including the cost and availability of land, the cost and availability of construction materials and labor, zoning and permitting limitations, our cost of capital, the cost of acquiring facilities relative to developing new facilities, and local demand and economic conditions.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“We have approximately 5,770 employees, including 4,920 customer facing roles (such as property level and customer care center personnel), 410 field management employees, and 440 employees in our corporate operations.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“•Our Customer Care Center: Our customer care center is staffed by skilled sales specialists and customer service representatives. Customers can reach our customer care center and complete their rental over the phone by calling our advertised toll-free telephone numbers provided on search engines, from our website, the Public Storage App, or from our in-store kiosks.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Technology We believe technology enables improved customer experience, revenue optimization, and cost efficiencies. Over the past few years, we have invested in additional technologies that we believe have enabled us to operate and compete more effectively by providing customers with an enhanced digital experience.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Property managers are trained to maximize the conversion of such “walk in” shoppers into customers. eRental® move-in process: To further enhance the move-in experience, we offer our eRental® process whereby prospective tenants (including those who initially reserved a space) can execute their rental agreement from their smartphone or computer and then go directly to their space on the move-in date. Nearly three quarters of our new rental agreements were completed by customers using our eRental® and Rent by Phone process during 2025.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Public Storage App: We maintain an industry leading smartphone application. The Public Storage App provides our tenants with digital access to our properties, as well as payment and other account management functions.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Centralized information network: Our centralized reporting and information network enables us to identify changing market conditions and operating trends and analyze tenants data. Our network allows us to quickly change each of our individual property’s pricing and promotions, drive marketing spending, such as the relative level of bidding for various paid search terms on paid search engines, and staff and respond to customer requests more timely.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Grow ancillary business activities: We pursue growth initiatives aimed at increasing our insurance offering coverage for tenants who choose to protect their stored items against loss. Additionally, as we grow our self-storage portfolio through acquisition, development and third-party management, we have the opportunity to increase the growth profile of our tenant reinsurance business.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Our tenant reinsurance business is subject to governmental regulation, which could reduce our profitability or limit our growth. We hold limited lines self-service storage insurance agent licenses from a number of individual state departments of insurance and are subject to state governmental regulation and supervision.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“General Discussion of our Business Public Storage is a Maryland real estate investment trust (“REIT”) engaged in the ownership, development, and operation of self-storage facilities and other related operations including tenant reinsurance, third-party self-storage management and bridge lending to third-party self-storage owners.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“We are heavily dependent upon automated information technology and Internet commerce, with more than half of our new customers coming from the telephone or over the Internet.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Convenient shopping experience: Customers can conveniently shop for available storage space, reviewing attributes such as facility location, size, amenities (such as climate-control), and pricing through the following marketing channels: •Our Website: The online marketing channel is a key source of customers. We believe that many of our other customers who reserved directly through our customer care center or arrived at a facility and moved in without a reservation reviewed our pricing and availability online through our website. We seek to update the structure, layout, and content of our website regularly to enhance our placement in “unpaid” search in Google and related websites, to improve the efficiency of our bids in “paid” search campaigns and visibility on large language model platforms, and to maximize users’ likelihood of reserving space on our website.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Elevated interest rates also adversely impact the relative attractiveness of the dividend yield on our common shares.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“We implemented a lending program in 2024, under which we provide bridge lending financing to third-party self-storage owners for operating properties that we manage. We generally originate bridge loans that are collateralized by operating self-storage properties, have a term of three or four years with two one-year extensions, and have variable interest rates.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Our use of or inability to safely and effectively adopt and deliver new technological capabilities and enhancements in line with strategic objectives, including artificial intelligence and machine learning, may put us at a competitive disadvantage; cause us to miss opportunities to innovate, achieve efficiencies, or improve the customer experience; or adversely impact our business, reputation, results of operations, and financial condition. For example, we have begun to utilize artificial intelligence technologies in various aspects of our business, which are susceptible to errors and other malfunctions which could lead to operational challenges and reputational risks.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“We also offer merchandise for sale at our self-storage facilities, primarily consisting of locks and cardboard boxes, to support customers’ storage needs.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Risks Related to Our Properties and Our Business Natural disasters, terrorist attacks, civil unrest, or other events that could damage or otherwise disrupt our ability to operate our facilities could adversely impact our business and financial results. Natural disasters, such as earthquakes, fires, hurricanes, drought, extreme temperatures and floods, terrorist attacks, civil unrest, and other events that damage our facilities or our tenants’ property, or that make our facilities temporarily unavailable, have in the past and may in the future adversely impact our business and financial results.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“We are also subject to potential liability relating to moisture infiltration, which can result in mold or other damage to our or our customers’ property, as well as potential health concerns. When we receive a complaint or otherwise become aware that an air quality concern exists, we implement corrective measures and seek to work proactively with our customers to resolve issues, subject to our contractual limitations on liability for such claims.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Local, state, and federal governments have and may in the future adopt regulations that could adversely impact our operations, including in response to natural disasters and public health crises. For example, in response to wildfires in 2018, 2019, and early 2025 and floods in 2023, the State of California and some localities in California adopted temporary regulations that imposed certain limits on the rents we could charge at certain of our facilities and the extent to which we could increase rents to existing tenants.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Operating costs, including property taxes, could increase. We could be subject to increases in property or other taxes, repair and maintenance costs, payroll, utility costs, insurance premiums, workers compensation, and other operating expenses due to various factors such as inflation, labor shortages, commodity and energy price increases, weather, increases to minimum wage rates, supply chain disruptions, and changes to governmental safety and real estate use limitations and other governmental actions.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Economic downturns or adverse economic or industry conditions, including those related to high levels of inflation, could adversely impact our financial results, growth, and access to capital.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“The acquisition of existing properties or self-storage operating companies is subject to risks that may adversely affect our growth and financial results. We have acquired self-storage facilities and self-storage operating companies in the past, and we expect to continue to do so in the future. We face significant competition for suitable acquisition properties and companies from other real estate investors, including operating companies and private equity funds.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Seasonality We experience minor seasonal fluctuations in the demand for self-storage space, with demand and rental rates generally higher in the summer months than in the winter months. We believe that these fluctuations result in part from increased moving activity during the summer months.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Customer preferences and/or needs for self-storage could change, decline, or shift to other product types, thereby impacting our business model and ability to grow and/or generate revenues.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Our revenues and operating cash flow can be negatively impacted by reductions in employment and population levels, household and disposable income, and other general economic factors that lead to a reduction in demand for self-storage space in each of the markets in which we operate.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“In addition, the inability to utilize our pricing methodology due to regulatory or market constraints could also significantly impact our financial results.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Our revenues and operating cash flow can be negatively impacted by reductions in employment and population levels, household and disposable income, and other general economic factors that lead to a reduction in demand for self-storage space in each of the markets in which we operate.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Economic conditions can adversely affect our business, financial condition, and growth.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“There are significant risks involved in developing self-storage facilities, such as delays, cost increases, or inability to complete development projects due to changes in or failure to meet government or regulatory requirements, failure of revenue to meet our underwriting estimates, delays caused by weather issues, unforeseen site conditions, or personnel problems.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“However, our level of development is dependent upon many factors, including the cost and availability of land, the cost and availability of construction materials and labor, zoning and permitting limitations, our cost of capital, the cost of acquiring facilities relative to developing new facilities, and local demand and economic conditions.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“These systems are subject to damage or interruption from power outages, system, network, internet and telecommunications failures, hackers, including through a ransomware attack, computer worms, viruses, and other destructive or disruptive cybersecurity incidents, and catastrophic events. Such incidents could also result in significant costs to repair or replace such networks or information systems, as well as actual monetary losses in case of a cybersecurity incident that resulted in fraudulent payments or other cash transactions.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“In the ordinary course of our business we acquire and store sensitive data, including personally identifiable information of our prospective and current customers and our employees. The secure processing and maintenance of this information is critical to our operations and business strategy.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“•Legislative, tax, and regulatory risks: Shurgard is subject to a variety of local, national, and pan-European laws and regulations related to permitting and land use, the environment, labor, and other areas, as well as income, property, sales, and value added and employment tax. These laws and regulations can be difficult to apply or interpret, can vary in each country or locality, and are subject to unexpected changes in their form and application due to regional, national, or local political uncertainty and other factors.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“We have exposure to European operations through our ownership in Shurgard. Shurgard, as an owner, operator, and developer of self-storage facilities, is subject to many of the same risks we are with respect to self-storage. However, through our investment in Shurgard, we are exposed to additional risks unique to the various European markets in which Shurgard operates, which may adversely impact our business and financial results, and many of which are referred to in Shurgard’s public filings.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Risks Related to Our Properties and Our Business Natural disasters, terrorist attacks, civil unrest, or other events that could damage or otherwise disrupt our ability to operate our facilities could adversely impact our business and financial results. Natural disasters, such as earthquakes, fires, hurricanes, drought, extreme temperatures and floods, terrorist attacks, civil unrest, and other events that damage our facilities or our tenants’ property, or that make our facilities temporarily unavailable, have in the past and may in the future adversely impact our business and financial results.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Security incidents could result in the perception that our properties are not safe. If our customers do not feel our properties are safe, they may select competitors for their self-storage needs, or if there is an industry perception of inadequate security generally, customer use of self-storage could be negatively impacted.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Similarly, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, certain localities adopted restrictions on the use of certain of our facilities, limited our ability to increase rents, limited our ability to collect rent or evict delinquent tenants, and limited our ability to complete development and redevelopment projects. California and other jurisdictions have also adopted regulations restricting our operations relating to pricing methodologies, restrictions on fees, procedures for selling stored property of delinquent tenants, marketing restrictions related to price changes and promotional rates, zoning restrictions and other matters.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“We are subject to extensive laws and regulations, and to frequent changes in such laws and regulations, at the city, county, state, and federal level. These laws and regulations include (i) laws and regulations related to access to our self-storage facilities, including the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, (ii) laws and regulations related to taxes, including property taxes, income taxes, and REIT status compliance, (iii) labor and employment laws and regulations, (iv) consumer protection laws and regulations, including those related to lien sales, (v) state and local business licensing laws and regulations, (vi) zoning laws and regulations, (vii) privacy laws and regulations, including the California Privacy Rights Act and the California Consumer Privacy Act, and (viii) securities laws.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“These risks include the following: •Currency risks: Currency fluctuations can impact the fair value of our investment in Shurgard, our equity earnings, our ongoing dividends, and any other related repatriations of cash.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“We could be subject to increases in property or other taxes, repair and maintenance costs, payroll, utility costs, insurance premiums, workers compensation, and other operating expenses due to various factors such as inflation, labor shortages, commodity and energy price increases, weather, increases to minimum wage rates, supply chain disruptions, and changes to governmental safety and real estate use limitations and other governmental actions.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Our revenues and operating cash flow can be negatively impacted by reductions in employment and population levels, household and disposable income, and other general economic factors that lead to a reduction in demand for self-storage space in each of the markets in which we operate.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“International trade disputes, including threatened or implemented tariffs imposed by the U.S. and threatened or implemented tariffs imposed by foreign countries in retaliation, could result in inflationary pressures that directly impact our costs, such as costs for steel, lumber and other materials applicable to our development and redevelopment projects.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“International trade disputes, including threatened or implemented tariffs imposed by the U.S. and threatened or implemented tariffs imposed by foreign countries in retaliation, could result in inflationary pressures that directly impact our costs, such as costs for steel, lumber and other materials applicable to our development and redevelopment projects. Trade disputes could also adversely impact global supply chains which could further increase costs for us or delay delivery of key inventories and supplies.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Shifts in population and demographics could cause the geographical distribution of our portfolio to be suboptimal and affect our ability to maintain occupancy and attract new customers.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“International trade disputes, including threatened or implemented tariffs imposed by the U.S. and threatened or implemented tariffs imposed by foreign countries in retaliation, could result in inflationary pressures that directly impact our costs, such as costs for steel, lumber and other materials applicable to our development and redevelopment projects.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Significantly lower logistics costs could introduce new competitors, such as valet-style storage services, which may reduce the demand for traditional self-storage.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“We are the largest owner of self-storage facilities in the United States (“U.S.”), with physical presence in most major markets and 40 states.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself