CubeSmart (CUBE) 2025 Q1 法說會逐字稿

Thank you for standing by. My name is Eric, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the CubeSmart first-quarter 2025 earnings call. (Operator Instructions)

感謝您的支持。我叫 Eric，今天我將擔任您的會議主持人。現在，我歡迎大家參加 CubeSmart 2025 年第一季財報電話會議。（操作員指示）

I would now like to turn the call over to Josh Schutzer, Vice President of Finance. Please go ahead.

現在我想將電話轉交給財務副總裁 Josh Schutzer。請繼續。

Thank you, Eric. Good morning, everyone. Welcome to CubeSmart's first-quarter 2025 earnings call. Participants on today's call include Chris Marr, President and Chief Officer; and Tim Martin, Chief Financial Officer. Our prepared remarks will be followed by a Q&A session.

謝謝你，埃里克。大家早安。歡迎參加 CubeSmart 2025 年第一季財報電話會議。今天參加電話會議的人員包括總裁兼執行長克里斯馬爾 (Chris Marr)；以及財務長 Tim Martin。我們的準備好的發言之後將進行問答環節。

In addition to our earnings release, which was issued yesterday evening, supplemental operating and financial data is available under the Investor Relations section of the company's website at www.cubesmart.com. The company's remarks will include certain forward-looking statements regarding earnings and strategies that involve risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results to differ materially from these forward-looking statements. The risks and factors that could cause our actual results to differ materially from forward-looking statements are provided in documents the company furnishes to or filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, specifically the Form 8-K we filed this morning, together with our earnings release filed on the Form 8-K and the Risk Factors section of the company's annual report on Form 10-K.

除了我們昨天晚上發布的收益報告外，您還可以在公司網站 www.cubesmart.com 的投資者關係部分找到補充營運和財務數據。該公司的評論將包括某些有關收益和策略的前瞻性陳述，這些陳述涉及風險、不確定性和其他因素，可能導致實際結果與這些前瞻性陳述有重大差異。可能導致我們的實際結果與前瞻性陳述存在重大差異的風險和因素在公司向美國證券交易委員會提供或提交的文件中有所說明，特別是我們今天上午提交的 8-K 表格，以及我們在 8-K 表格上提交的收益報告和公司 10-K 表格年度報告中的風險因素部分。

In addition, the company's remarks include reference to non-GAAP measures. A reconciliation between GAAP and non-GAAP measures can be found in the first quarter financial supplement posted on the company's website at www.cubesmart.com.

此外，該公司的評論中也提到了非公認會計準則指標。在公司網站 www.cubesmart.com 上發布的第一季財務補充報告中可以找到 GAAP 和非 GAAP 指標之間的對帳。

I will now turn the call over to Chris.

現在我將電話轉給克里斯。

Thank you, Josh. Thank you, everyone, for joining us this morning. Our performance in the first quarter was strong. Our key performance metrics all trended towards the higher end of our expectations. We expected -- we experienced -- I'm sorry, we experienced solid top performing demand.

謝謝你，喬希。感謝大家今天上午加入我們。我們第一季的表現很強勁。我們的關鍵績效指標均趨向於我們預期的較高水準。我們預期——我們經歷了——抱歉，我們經歷了強勁的最高需求。

Rental rates for new customers continue to improve, narrowing their year-over-year gap, and our existing customer health remains solid. Muted operating expense growth reflects the continued optimization of our platform while not losing focus on providing our renowned best-in-class customer service. This positive operational performance resulted in $0.64 of FFO per share, a $0.01 beat to the high end of our guidance.

新客戶的租賃率持續提高，年比差距縮小，現有客戶的健康狀況仍然穩固。營運費用成長放緩反映了我們平台的持續優化，同時也沒有忽視提供我們享有盛譽的一流客戶服務。這一積極的營運業績導致每股 FFO 為 0.64 美元，比我們的預期上限高出 0.01 美元。

As previously discussed, during the quarter, we closed on the acquisition of our joint venture partner's interest in a high-quality portfolio, expanding our presence in several key markets. Our strong markets, the New York City boroughs, Chicago, in the Washington, DC, Maryland and Virginia suburbs, all continue to exhibit their strength and our supply-impacted markets or the New Jersey, Phoenix and Atlanta, are existing signs of stabilization or recovery. Through four decades of operating in the self-storage industry, I remain impressed by its resilience. The quality and geographic diversity of our portfolio, the economic diversity of our need-based customer and the ever-increasing sophistication of our platform provide great confidence in the long-term health of the industry and in our performance as a leading operator.

如前所述，在本季度，我們完成了對合資夥伴在高品質投資組合中的權益的收購，擴大了我們在幾個關鍵市場的影響力。我們的強勁市場，紐約市行政區、芝加哥、華盛頓特區、馬裡蘭州和維吉尼亞州郊區，都繼續展現出它們的實力，而我們的受供應影響的市場，即新澤西州、鳳凰城和亞特蘭大，都出現了穩定或復甦的跡象。在自助倉儲業經營四十年，我仍然對它的彈性印象深刻。我們投資組合的品質和地理多樣性、我們基於需求的客戶的經濟多樣性以及我們平台的日益複雜化，為行業的長期健康和我們作為領先運營商的表現提供了極大的信心。

Now I'd like to turn the call over to Tim Martin, our Chief Financial Officer, for his comments on the quarter. Tim?

現在，我想將電話轉給我們的財務長蒂姆·馬丁，請他對本季發表評論。提姆？

Thanks, Chris. Good morning, everyone. Thanks as always for taking a few minutes out of your day to spend it with us. First-quarter results, as Chris mentioned, we're strong, coming in a little bit better than our expectations, giving us a nice positive start to the year.

謝謝，克里斯。大家早安。一如既往地感謝您抽出幾分鐘來與我們共度時光。正如克里斯所提到的，第一季的業績表現強勁，比我們的預期要好一些，這為我們今年的開局帶來了良好的開端。

Same-store revenue growth was down 0.4% over last year, a nice improvement from down 1.6% in the fourth quarter. Our average occupancy for our same-store portfolio was down 50 basis points to 89.5% during the first quarter, again, a gap that narrowed from down 120 basis points during the fourth quarter.

同店營收成長較去年同期下降 0.4%，較第四季下降 1.6% 有較大改善。我們同店平均入住率在第一季下降了 50 個基點，至 89.5%，但與第四季的 120 個基點相比，差距有所縮小。

From a rate perspective, our move-in rates during Q1 were down about 8% year over year. And that was an improvement on Q4 when we were down about 10% year-over-year. So while we're not back to an inflection point where we're seeing growth over prior year levels, we are seeing improvements in all of these key metrics.

從利率角度來看，我們第一季的入住率年減了約 8%。與第四季相比，情況有所改善，當時我們的銷售額年減了約 10%。因此，雖然我們還沒有回到成長超過去年水準的拐點，但我們看到所有這些關鍵指標都在改善。

Same-store operating expenses grew only 0.6% over last year, a result that was better than we had modeled for the quarter. We had a little bit of good news versus our expectations across a number of line items. Some of those are more timing related, like marketing and repair and maintenance while others like personnel and weather-related costs were good results versus expectation that lead to an improvement in our outlook for full year expense growth. So revenue growth of negative 0.4% combined with 0.6% growth in operating expenses yielded negative 0.8% same-store NOI growth for the quarter. We reported FFO per share as adjusted of $0.64 for the quarter, which was $0.01 higher than our guidance entering the quarter.

同店營業費用僅比去年同期成長 0.6%，這一結果優於我們對該季度的預測。就多項內容而言，我們聽到了一些比預期更好的消息。其中一些與時間更相關，例如行銷和維修與保養，而其他一些，例如人員和天氣相關成本，與預期相比結果良好，這導致我們對全年費用增長的前景有所改善。因此，營收成長-0.4%加上營業費用成長0.6%導致本季同店淨利成長-0.8%。我們報告本季調整後的每股 FFO 為 0.64 美元，比本季開始時的預期高出 0.01 美元。

On the external growth front, we closed on the previously announced acquisition of the remaining 80% interest of one of our unconsolidated joint ventures known as HVP IV. As we discussed on last quarter's call, this was a portfolio of 28 early-stage lease-up stores that were acquired between 2017 and 2021, predominantly in top 30 MSAs. Our investment of $452.8 million included $44.5 million that represented our portion of repaying the venture-level debt. So we now wholly own the portfolio on an unencumbered basis. Another successful venture for us, creating meaningful value for both parties and resulting in an accretive transaction, an attractive basis in a geographically diverse recent vintage portfolio with perfect underwriting and still yet a little bit of outsized growth on the horizon as some of the assets fully stabilize.

在外部成長方面，我們完成了先前宣布的對其中一家非合併合資企業 HVP IV 剩餘 80% 權益的收購。正如我們在上個季度的電話會議上所討論的那樣，這是一個由 28 家早期租賃商店組成的投資組合，這些商店是在 2017 年至 2021 年期間收購的，主要位於前 30 個 MSA 中。我們投資的 4.528 億美元包括 4,450 萬美元，代表我們償還創投債務的部分。因此，我們現在完全無負擔地擁有該投資組合。對我們來說，這是另一項成功的投資，它為雙方創造了有意義的價值，並帶來了增值交易，在地理分佈多樣化的近期投資組合中奠定了具有吸引力的基礎，承保完美，而且隨著部分資產的完全穩定，未來仍將出現一些超額增長。

On the third-party management front, we added 33 stores to the platform in the quarter and ended the quarter with 869 third-party stores under management. Balance sheet remains in excellent shape with net debt to EBITDA at 4.8 times, with bond maturity later in the year that we will address either with existing capacity or through accessing the debt markets opportunistically here in the coming quarters.

在第三方管理方面，我們在本季為平台增加了 33 家門市，截至本季末，我們管理的第三方門市總數達到 869 家。資產負債表保持良好狀態，淨債務與 EBITDA 比率為 4.8 倍，債券將於今年稍後到期，我們將利用現有能力或在未來幾季透過機會進入債務市場來解決這個問題。

Details of our 2025 earnings guidance and related assumptions were included in our release last night. As I opened with, performance in the first quarter was strong, with most metrics near the higher end of our expectations with narrowing year-over-year declines in move-in rates and occupancy throughout the quarter, while our existing customer metrics remain strong. That said, we've all seen the headlines. Starting in April, there has been quite a bit of uncertainty throughout the economy which results in volatility for the large consumer decisions, which can be drivers for storage demand.

我們昨晚發布的新聞稿中包含了 2025 年盈利預測和相關假設的詳細資訊。正如我開頭所述，第一季的業績表現強勁，大多數指標都接近我們預期的高端，整個季度的入住率和入住率同比降幅均有所縮小，而我們現有的客戶指標依然保持強勁。話雖如此，我們都看到了頭條新聞。從四月開始，整個經濟領域出現了相當多的不確定性，導致大型消費者決策出現波動，而這可能會推動儲存需求。

At this point, we do not foresee any improvement to the frozen housing market given the current rate environment and market uncertainty. And so our base case remains for gradual improvement in operational metrics in 2025, but without a catalyst for sharp reacceleration. The recent uncertainty around the consumer leads us to maintain our prior range of expectations for top line growth. We did see better-than-expected performance on expenses, which allowed us to narrow that range slightly, providing a modest improvement to the midpoint of our FFO per share range.

目前，鑑於當前的利率環境和市場不確定性，我們預計凍結的房地產市場不會有任何改善。因此，我們的基本預測仍然是 2025 年營運指標將逐步改善，但沒有出現急劇加速的催化劑。近期消費者的不確定性使我們維持先前對營收成長的預期範圍。我們確實看到了好於預期的支出表現，這使我們能夠稍微縮小這一範圍，從而適度改善我們的每股 FFO 範圍的中點。

That concludes our prepared remarks. Thanks again for joining us on the call this morning. At this time, Eric, let's open up the call for some questions.

我們的準備好的演講到此結束。再次感謝您今天上午參加我們的電話會議。艾瑞克，現在讓我們開始回答一些問題。

(Operator Instructions) Samir Khanal, Bank of America.

（操作員指示）美國銀行的 Samir Khanal。

I guess maybe, Chris, you mentioned when I looked at the press release yesterday talked about solid demand, right? You kind of characterized the environment that way. Just maybe expand on that comment. Help us understand what the drivers are to demand at this time that you certainly saw in the first quarter?

我想也許，克里斯，你提到當我昨天看新聞稿時談到了強勁的需求，對嗎？您以這樣的方式描述了環境。也許只是擴展一下該評論。請幫助我們了解您在第一季看到的當前需求驅動因素是什麼？

The beauty of our business and why it's so resilient is that our customer envy everyone. And so the drivers of demand in the quarter, given what's going on in the housing market, clearly, that customer who is selling, buying single-family home continues to not be at the levels that we would have experienced historically, and that's been the situation now for a few years. So within that demand, it's the everyday life events plus our business customers who find us as a solution to whatever their need is for pouring their possessions for a defined period of time. So nothing new. It's just an incredibly resilient business with a very, very diverse customer base with a very diverse set of needs.

我們的業務如此出色，並且如此具有韌性，是因為我們的客戶讓每個人都羨慕不已。因此，考慮到房地產市場的現狀，本季需求的驅動因素顯然是，出售和購買獨棟住宅的客戶數量仍然沒有達到我們歷史上所經歷的水平，這種情況已經持續了幾年。因此，在這種需求範圍內，無論是日常生活或商業客戶，都可以找到我們來滿足他們在特定時期內存放物品的需求。所以沒什麼新鮮事。這是一家極具韌性的企業，擁有非常多樣化的客戶群和非常多樣化的需求。

And as a result, we've proven over time to be a very, very resilient, resilient business, and that's what's so great about self-storage.

因此，隨著時間的推移，我們已證明自己是一家非常有韌性的企業，這就是自助倉儲的優點所在。

Got it. And then I guess, Tim, I'm sorry if I missed this, but where was occupancy in April? I know you mentioned that being 89.7% in March.

知道了。然後我想，蒂姆，如果我錯過了這個我很抱歉，但是四月份的入住率是多少？我知道您提到 3 月份這一比例為 89.7%。

Yes, this is Chris. 89.9% is where we ended April.

是的，這是克里斯。 4 月底我們的目標是 89.9%。

And just as a follow-up, I know one of your peers have talked about maybe lowering rates in April to kind of get the higher occupancy. Is that something you had to do as well in your portfolio?

作為後續問題，我知道您的一位同事曾談到可能在 4 月降低房價，以獲得更高的入住率。這也是您在投資組合中必須做的事情嗎？

Yes. So the average rent rate on rentals, if you just think about sort of that sequential move as we've gone over the last couple of quarters and then into April. Move-in rates in the fourth quarter, on average, were down 10% year-over-year. In the first quarter that then contracted to down 8% and during the month of April, they were down about 2%.

是的。因此，如果您只是考慮過去幾季以及 4 月的連續變化，您會發現租賃的平均租金率。第四季的入住率平均年減 10%。第一季度，出口額下降了 8%，而 4 月份，出口額又下降了約 2%。

Nick Kerr, Citi.

花旗銀行的尼克‧克爾 (Nick Kerr)。

It's Nick Kerr on for Eric this morning. So I guess you mentioned the strong start to the year, but you're not adjusting guidance much given macro volatility. So I guess the question is, if we're in a less volatile environment like when you gave guidance initially, what would have changed would same-store revenue have gone up a little bit more, would core have gone up a little bit more? Just help us think through like what that would have looked like.

今天早上，尼克·科爾 (Nick Kerr) 代替埃里克 (Eric) 發言。所以我猜你提到了今年開局強勁，但考慮到宏觀波動，你不會對指引進行太多調整。所以我想問題是，如果我們處在一個波動較小的環境中，就像您最初給出指導時一樣，會發生什麼變化？同店收入是否會再增加一點？核心收入是否會再增加一點？只是幫助我們思考一下那會是什麼樣子。

Yes, I appreciate the question. The thing that is consistent regardless of one's view on macro volatility is that it's still the date on the calendar, right? We're still very early in our leasing season. So even if you weren't in that environment, not sure that you would see us or others in the industry have a dramatic move on our expectations for the full year based only on the first quarter results. You combine that with the fact that we set our expectations in February and communicated them, so not all that much has changed.

是的，我很感謝你提出這個問題。無論人們對宏觀波動的看法如何，有一點是一致的：它仍然是日曆上的日期，對嗎？我們的租賃季節仍處於早期階段。因此，即使您不在那種環境下，也不確定您是否會看到我們或業內其他人僅根據第一季的業績對全年預期做出重大調整。結合我們在二月設定的預期並進行溝通的事實，所以並沒有太大的變化。

It was a good first quarter, and it was a little bit better than we thought it was going to be. That said, we're still -- we still have the whole rental season ahead of us. And even in more normal times, it's a little bit easier to predict what that might look like, but it's still imperfect until you get a little bit deeper into the rental season.

第一季表現不錯，比我們預想的要好一些。話雖如此，我們仍然——我們仍然有整個租賃季節。即使在更正常的時期，預測情況也會更容易一些，但直到進入租賃季節之後，預測仍然不完美。

I guess the follow-up would be, what would you guys consider a good peak leasing season? Like how can we measure that?

我想接下來的問題是，你們認為什麼時候是租借旺季？比如我們如何衡量這一點？

Good relative to our expectations, good relative to historical performance, like what was your good rent?

相對於我們的預期而言是好的，相對於歷史表現而言是好的，例如你的好租金是多少？

Yeah, I guess, if we're sitting on the second quarter call right now and you say we had a good peak leasing season, what would that entail?

是的，我想，如果我們現在正在召開第二季度電話會議，而您說我們度過了一個良好的租賃旺季，這意味著什麼？

Yes. Well, I would tell that being good relative to what we expect it to be. And so our expectation included in the base -- in our baseline scenario is that we are not anticipating a rental season that looks like a pre-pandemic air quote normal rental season in that we're not expecting the same gains in physical occupancy that we would typically see seasonally. We're not expecting the same level of rate growth that we historically in a normal time, would have seen, we're expecting something a little bit more muted. So for us, having into this rental season, good would be what we expect.

是的。嗯，我想說的是，相對於我們期望的情況來說，這還是不錯的。因此，我們的預期包括在我們的基準情境中，我們預計租賃季節不會像疫情前的正常租賃季節那樣，因為我們預計實際入住率不會像我們通常在季節性看到的那樣有所增長。我們預期利率成長不會達到歷史上正常時期的水平，我們預期利率成長會稍微溫和一些。因此對我們來說，進入這個租賃季節，我們期待的是好的。

Great would be something that looked a little bit more like normal levels of seasonality. That is great, is not our expectation at this point.

偉大之處在於它看起來更像正常的季節性水平。這很好，這不是我們目前的期望。

Spenser Glimcher, Green Street.

史賓塞‧格里姆徹 (Spenser Glimcher)，綠街。

Thank you. Just as it relates to market level performance, some of your Texas markets seem to be under pressure in 1Q. Can you just talk about what drove the end of performance there? And kind of higher thinking about expectations moving forward for the rest of the year for those markets?

謝謝。正如與市場水平表現相關一樣，你們的一些德克薩斯州市場在第一季似乎面臨壓力。您能談談導致那裡的表演結束的原因嗎？對這些市場在今年剩餘時間內的發展有何更高預期？

Sure. Yes, when you get into, again, Dallas, Houston, Austin and San Antonio, Austin, a supply-impacted market, I think, is coming back and we see green shoots there and feel pretty good about Austin. When you think about Houston, again, solid a market that has, again, a super resilient theme for the call, absorbed a lot of supply and did so with some pretty good population growth, pretty good job growth and is, I think, in a good footing and moving in a good direction. Dallas is a little bit tough. Part of that is supply, part of that is pricing decisions from the competitive set that we face in Dallas.

當然。是的，當你再次進入達拉斯、休斯頓、奧斯汀和聖安東尼奧時，我認為受供應影響的市場奧斯汀正在復蘇，我們在那裡看到了復甦的跡象，對奧斯汀感覺相當良好。當您想到休士頓時，您會發現，這是一個穩固的市場，再次具有超強的彈性主題，吸收了大量的供應，並且實現了相當不錯的人口增長和就業增長，我認為，它處於良好的基礎並朝著好的方向發展。達拉斯有點難對付。其中一部分是供應，一部分是我們在達拉斯面臨的競爭環境中的定價決策。

So we're working through both of those. But again, as I said in my prepared remarks, I think all of these markets are -- we're feeling good about and I think are, at one end, stabilizing and at the other end, I think, moving in a pretty good direction.

所以我們正在努力解決這兩個問題。但是，正如我在準備好的發言中所說的那樣，我認為所有這些市場——我們都感覺良好，我認為，一方面，它們正在穩定下來，另一方面，我認為，它們正朝著相當好的方向發展。

Okay. Great. That's really helpful color. And then just on the two developments in process. It seems as though those are trending well in terms of timing and then total anticipated cost. But I'm just curious if there has been any setbacks or surprises on input costs or labor just given the broader economic climate?

好的。偉大的。這顏色確實很有幫助。然後僅討論正在進行的兩個發展過程。從時間安排和預計總成本來看，這些趨勢似乎都很好。但我只是好奇，考慮到整體經濟環境，投入成本或勞動力是否出現了任何挫折或意外？

Thanks, Spenser. So there have not been any surprises. I mean, any development has its challenges along the way. But just given the timing of those projects, they were in advance of from a raw material standpoint of being exposed to all of the volatility that we've seen in recent weeks months. So from a timing perspective, we were on the fortunate side of not being impacted in any meaningful way on those projects.

謝謝，史賓塞。因此並沒有什麼意外。我的意思是，任何發展都會面臨挑戰。但僅從原材料的角度來看，這些項目的時機就已經領先於我們在最近幾週幾個月看到的所有波動。因此，從時間角度來看，我們很幸運，這些項目沒有受到任何重大影響。

Todd Thomas, KeyBanc.

托德·托馬斯，KeyBanc。

Chris, Tim, you ran ahead of your budget in the first quarter, and I understand the conservatism just being it's early in the year and just given all of the uncertainty today, but the 2Q guide assumes a flat result at the midpoint relative to the first quarter, which I do not believe has really happened very often going back to 2005, the first year after the company IPO-ed.

克里斯、提姆，你們在第一季超出了預算，我理解這種保守的態度，因為現在正值年初，而且考慮到目前所有的不確定性，但第二季度指南假設中期結果與第一季度持平，我認為自 2005 年（公司 IPO 後的第一年）以來，這種情況並不常見。

It sounds like you're seeing some seasonality, rents and occupancy are trending higher through April. So can you just discuss some of the puts and takes? What causes FFO to hold steady? And what's assumed at the lower end of the 2Q FFO guide of $0.63, that'd be down $0.01 sequentially.

聽起來你看到了一些季節性因素，四月租金和入住率呈上升趨勢。那麼你能討論一下其中的一些優缺點嗎？什麼原因導致 FFO 保持穩定？假設第二季 FFO 指南的下限為 0.63 美元，則季減 0.01 美元。

Good question. I don't really spend a lot of time thinking about that sequence. A couple of different things that are going on, we have -- it was a good first quarter, a little bit better. Some of that is on timing of operating expenses. As you know, on the top line growth, we have the other income line item, which we are lapping some changes that we made a year ago, and so we will get a little bit less of a contribution from that line item starting in the second quarter.

好問題。我實際上並沒有花很多時間去思考這個序列。我們正在發生一些不同的事情——第一季表現不錯，略有好轉。其中一些與營運費用的時間有關。如您所知，在營業收入成長方面，我們還有另一項收入項目，我們正在對一年前做出的一些改變進行重疊，因此從第二季度開始，該項目對我們的貢獻將會減少一些。

The timing on some expenses, it's timing of marketing spend this year versus last year. I guess it's a combination of things. Nothing meaningful that I can point to that would point to that trend being different than it had been historically other than expense timing.

一些費用的時機，是今年與去年行銷支出的時機。我猜這是多種因素造成的。除了費用時機之外，我無法指出任何有意義的證據來表明這種趨勢與歷史趨勢不同。

Okay, that's helpful. And then, Chris, you mentioned small business customer demand in one of your comments or responses. Are you seeing that demand pick up at all? And are there certain markets, in particular, where you have seen some evidence of that type of demand materializing a little bit more?

好的，這很有幫助。然後，克里斯，您在一條評論或回覆中提到了小型企業客戶的需求。您是否看到需求回升？您是否在某些特定的市場中看到了此類需求進一步增長的證據？

Yes to some degree, the urban market. So we see a little bit of a pickup in that customer base in New York, in some of the more urban areas of North Jersey. We see it in the more urban areas of Chicago, a little bit in Washington, D.C. proper. And it's a combination of folks finding us as a solution to making a commitment to more permit space.

是的，從某種程度上來說，就是城市市場。因此，我們看到紐約和新澤西北部一些城市地區的客戶群有所回升。我們在芝加哥的城市地區和華盛頓特區本區都看到了這種情況。這是人們找到我們的解決方案並承諾提供更多許可空間的結果。

So instead of small warehouse or a portion of the space in a warehouse. Not necessarily due to any particular marketing efforts on our side, I think more from a growing awareness of self-storage.

因此，它不是小倉庫，也不是倉庫中的一部分空間。我認為，這不一定是由於我們做出了任何特殊的營銷努力，而更多的是由於人們對自助存儲的認識不斷提高。

And in the more suburban areas, it's really submarket or actually store-specific. What we have not seen is any distress. So we have not really seen a pickup in small businesses that are using us because they have chosen to shut down, which we view in the near term here, at least as positive.

而在郊區，它實際上是子市場或特定商店。我們沒有看到任何痛苦。因此，我們並沒有真正看到與我們合作的小型企業數量有所回升，因為他們選擇關閉，但我們認為這在短期內至少是正面的。

Michael Griffin, Evercore ISI.

邁克爾·格里芬（Michael Griffin），Evercore ISI。

Obviously, a good job on the expense control this quarter. Just curious, particularly for the personnel expense going down year-over-year, mean is that more kind of proactive management of staffing at facilities? Is it wage related? How should we think about kind of that line item throughout the cadence of the year?

顯然，本季的費用控製做得很好。只是好奇，特別是對於人員費用逐年下降的情況，這是否意味著對設施人員的管理更加積極主動？和工資有關嗎？我們應該如何考慮全年節奏中的此類項目？

Yes. It's a -- thanks for the question. It's a combination of a handful of things. What is not is a way certainly, there's still wage inflation, and we look to be competitive with our teammates and the story are critically important part of our of our model and our success. That said, we have been able to over the past several years, find ways to be more efficient in how we're staffing the stores, managing the hours in the stores.

是的。這是一個——感謝您的提問。它是多種事物的組合。當然，這不是什麼辦法，薪資仍然存在膨脹，我們希望與我們的隊友保持競爭力，而故事對於我們的模式和成功至關重要。也就是說，在過去的幾年中，我們已經能夠找到更有效率的方法，來安排商店的人員並管理商店的營業時間。

And so that's really part of the contribution on that line item. That is a line item that we don't -- a little bit of it also is what we did in the first quarter of last year versus this year, I wouldn't expect to see that type of number repeat itself throughout the year. Our expectation for the full year is for that number to be more flat than negative compared to last year in total for the year.

這實際上是該專案貢獻的一部分。這是我們未曾關注的項目——其中一部分也是我們去年第一季與今年相比所做的事情，我預計全年不會重複出現這種數字。我們對全年的預期是，與去年全年總數相比，這一數字將持平，而不是出現負值。

Great. That's helpful. And then just on the acquisition opportunity set. Obviously, you bought out your JV partner stake in a one venture in the first quarter. But as you look ahead, are there any opportunities maybe to buy out some of the other existing joint ventures, do wholly owned acquisitions makes sense right now?

偉大的。這很有幫助。然後就討論收購機會。顯然，您在第一季就買下了一家合資企業的合資夥伴的股份。但展望未來，是否有機會收購其他一些現有的合資企業，現在進行全資收購是否有意義？

If you can give us a sense of that, that would be helpful.

如果您能讓我們了解這一點，那將會很有幫助。

Wholly owned acquisitions would make a lot of sense for us if sellers would sell us their assets at the price we would like to pay. Unfortunately, that's not the way the world works. I think the volatility in the in the market and head fakes in both directions on where interest rates are ultimately going to land has created an environment that I would have described to you three months ago being a little bit more constructive where buyers and sellers were starting to converge on valuation, I would say the last handful of months is probably sent that back in the other direction a little bit as there's just an awful lot of uncertainty as to where cost of capital ultimately lands for everyone on both sides of the table. So a little bit hazy right now.

如果賣家願意以我們願意支付的價格向我們出售其資產，那麼全資收購對我們來說就很有意義。不幸的是，世界並不是這樣運作的。我認為，市場波動以及對利率最終走向的兩種預期已經創造了一種環境，三個月前我曾向你們描述過這種環境，即買家和賣家開始在估值上達成一致，但我想說，過去幾個月的情況可能稍微逆轉了，因為對於雙方的資本成本最終走向，都存在很大的不確定性。現在有點模糊。

From our perspective, what we focus our energy on is looking at every opportunity, trying to uncover every opportunity to maintain a healthy balance sheet that gives us the capacity to transact when we see attractive opportunities to do so. But just like some of our other commentary on where we see the rental season and other things. I would say the investments part of the equation is also pretty fuzzy. You would think that there is an increasing line of potential sellers that's building because there hasn't been a high level of transactions here over the past, gosh, going on now 24 months. So you would think there would become some more and more motivation on the seller side.

從我們的角度來看，我們集中精力尋找每一個機會，試圖發現每一個機會來維持健康的資產負債表，這使我們能夠在看到有吸引力的機會時進行交易。但就像我們對租賃季節和其他事情的一些評論一樣。我想說這個等式的投資部分也相當模糊。您可能會認為潛在賣家的數量正在增加，因為過去 24 個月這裡的交易量並不高。所以你會認為賣方方面會變得越來越有動力。

But that said, if you're a seller and you're not forced to come to the table, maybe you continue to wait for a little bit better data to bring your asset to market.

但話雖如此，如果你是賣家，而你並沒有被迫參與談判，也許你會繼續等待更好的數據，然後再將你的資產推向市場。

Ravi Vaidya, Mizuho.

瑞穗的拉維·瓦伊迪亞 (Ravi Vaidya)。

I hope you guys are doing well. I just wanted to ask about your ECRI strategy right now, particularly as we're starting to see the second derivative and the number of fundamentals improved. Like how are you thinking about your ECRI rates? Are they still elevated right now? Or are you looking to bring them back down to maybe increase move-in rates?

我希望你們一切都好。我只是想問一下您目前的 ECRI 策略，特別是當我們開始看到二階導數和基本面數量的改善時。您如何看待您的 ECRI 率？它們現在還處於升高狀態嗎？或者您希望降低房價，從而提高入住率？

Yes, thank you. So our strategy has not changed and has been fairly consistent for over a year now. The actual tactics underlying do change on a frequent basis because we're completely data driven simply looking at the in-place customers who are who are eligible for a rate increase and thinking about how to balance great customer service, a good customer experience with that plan.

是的，謝謝。因此我們的策略沒有改變，一年多來一直保持相當一致。實際的策略確實會經常發生變化，因為我們完全由數據驅動，只需專注於有資格提高費率的現有客戶，並思考如何平衡優質的客戶服務、良好的客戶體驗與該計劃。

And so I think in this environment, that's more constructive on price, we'll just continue to, again, let the data drive our decisions. The ECRIs in the quarter were fairly consistent with where they were both last quarter and last year. And I would not envision at this point that we would be making any meaningful change to the program at this time.

因此，我認為在這種環境下，這對價格更有建設性，我們將繼續讓數據驅動我們的決策。本季的 ECRI 與上一季和去年的水平相當一致。我現在還無法想像我們會對該計劃做出任何有意義的改變。

Daniel Tricarico, Scotiabank.

加拿大豐業銀行的 Daniel Tricarico。

Looking to understand the sequential rate trends so far this year. How much are street rates maybe or you're moving rates up from the seasonal trough in late January, early February through April? And how does that compare to 2024 or a pre-COVID, quote-unquote, normal year?

希望了解今年迄今的連續利率趨勢。街道價格可能是多少，或者你們會將價格從 1 月底、2 月初到 4 月的季節性低潮上調嗎？那麼與 2024 年或新冠疫情之前的正常年份相比如何？

Sure. And so if you think about it, and I guess I talked about it to a prior question, they've -- they've been moving in a very constructive direction. Q4 averaged down about 10%, Q1 average down about 8%. And then in the month of April, the average was down a little bit north of 2%. If we look at that compared to how rates just a sequential movement in rates, they're up about mid-teens.

當然。所以如果你仔細想想，我想我在之前的問題中已經討論過這個問題，他們——他們一直在朝著非常建設性的方向前進。第四季平均下降約 10%，第一季平均下降約 8%。然後在四月份，平均值略微下降了 2%。如果我們將其與利率的連續變動進行比較，就會發現利率上漲了大約百分之十幾。

And if you compare that to kind of how that sequential curve moved last year, it's better than what we saw in 2024.

如果你將其與去年連續曲線的走勢進行比較，你會發現它比 2024 年的情況要好。

Great. I was looking for the latter part of that. So I appreciate it. And how does the 89.9% at the end of April compared to last year?

偉大的。我正在尋找後者。所以我很感激。那麼四月底的89.9%與去年相比呢？

Yes. It's a 90 basis point gap to last year.

是的。與去年相比有 90 個基點的差距。

Ki Bin Kim, Truist Securities.

Ki Bin Kim，Truist 證券公司。

Wanted to ask a couple of questions on the New York City market in DC. Both markets rebounded nicely. I was curious, is that more along the lines of the rebound you saw nationally in your portfolio? Or are there certain elements about New York Figure or DC that you think are more supportive that might have more sustainability going forward?

想問幾個有關紐約市和華盛頓特區市場的問題。兩個市場均出現良好反彈。我很好奇，這是否更符合您在投資組合中看到的全國範圍內的反彈？或者您認為紐約人物或華盛頓特區是否存在某些更具支持性的元素，這些元素在未來可能會更具可持續性？

It's as often in our business a mixture of the two. The boroughs seeing very good performance that is led by the Bronx and Brooklyn, both seeing kind of 5%-ish type same-store revenue growth, very solid. Queens, the submarkets with the exception of Long Island City, doing well.

在我們的業務中，這兩者經常混合在一起。以布朗克斯區和布魯克林區為首的行政區表現非常好，同店收入均實現了 5% 左右的成長，非常穩健。皇后區，除長島市外的其他子市場表現良好。

Long Island City is going to face a pretty competitive supply situation here for a little bit quite close to all of our stores in that market. And then the opposite when you get to the MSA is Northern New Jersey, which is kind of flat in the first quarter, and it's still moving in a good direction with the supply impact, but has a ways to go.

長島市將面臨相當激烈的供應形勢，因為我們在該市場的所有商店都位於附近。然後，當您到達 MSA 時，情況正好相反，新澤西州北部在第一季基本上持平，並且在供應影響下仍然朝著良好的方向發展，但還有很長的路要走。

DC, I think, again, the suburbs continue to be quite strong and the district itself is up close to 4% in the quarter, same-store revenue and move in a good direction. So I would say to kind of get more direct, a little bit better than what we're seeing nationally. We're seeing in New York City, Washington and its suburbs and Chicago. And I think those trends marginally will continue as we go throughout the year.

華盛頓特區，我認為，郊區繼續保持強勁勢頭，而該地區本身在本季度的同店收入增長了近 4%，並且朝著良好的方向發展。所以我想說，要更加直接，比我們在全國範圍內看到的情況要好一點。我們在紐約市、華盛頓及其郊區和芝加哥都看到了這種情況。我認為這些趨勢將會持續一整年。

And do you think the strength in DC has anything to do with DOGE or some of the government employee turnover?

您認為華盛頓特區的實力與 DOGE 或部分政府員工的流動有關嗎？

So we asked that question, and we are grassroots having the folks in the stores trying to see what kind of color they can obtain from our customers. Nothing obvious yet on that front.

所以我們問了這個問題，我們基層讓商店裡的人嘗試看看他們能從我們的顧客那裡獲得什麼樣的顏色。目前這方面尚無明顯進展。

Michael Goldsmith, UBS.

瑞銀集團的麥可‧戈德史密斯。

It seems like you're seeing a really nice improvement in street rates in April, down 2% versus down 8% in the first quarter. Just trying to unpack that a little bit. Is that a reflection of the comparisons? Is that a reflection of different strategy? Is that just lowering rates kind of as low as it can be without driving incremental demand?

看起來，四月街頭利率確實有了很大的改善，下降了 2%，而第一季則下降了 8%。只是想稍微解開一下。這是比較的反映嗎？這是否反映了不同的策略？這是否只是將利率降至最低，而又不推動增量需求？

Just trying to understand kind of like what is -- what are the factors driving that improvement there?

只是想了解一下是什麼——推動這種改善的因素是什麼？

Yes. We saw, obviously, a very good first quarter. If you take leap year out, our rentals in the quarter were flat to last year, which in this environment was really, really good. And that was with a gradual improvement from January to February, to March in rate. And as I said, rates moving up sequentially a little bit more than what we would have seen better than what we saw last year.

是的。顯然，我們看到第一季表現非常好。如果除去閏年，我們本季的租金與去年持平，在這種環境下，這真的非常好。從一月到二月，再到三月，成長率一直在逐步改善。正如我所說，利率環比上漲幅度略高於我們所預期的水平，並且比去年的情況要好。

So with that, it continued into April. April is pretty volatile. And again, we'll continue to watch this. There's obviously everything that Tim spoke about that's happening in the world today, and we're carefully watching how that impacts the consumer. So Frankly, Michael, we're kind of taking it day to day, week to week here at this point.

就這樣，這種情況一直持續到了四月。四月相當動盪。我們會繼續關注此事。顯然，蒂姆談到的一切都發生在當今世界，我們正在密切關注這些事件對消費者的影響。所以坦白說，邁克爾，我們現在每天都在做這件事，每週都在做。

Got it. And just to follow up. You talked a little bit about some expense timing. Can you provide a little bit more color what's going on there? And I think in particular, you have referenced marketing, but if you can just clarify what moves where and if that's expected to come back later in the year, that would be helpful.

知道了。只是為了跟進。您談到了一些費用時間表。您能否提供更多詳細資訊來說明那裡發生的事情？我認為您特別提到了行銷，但如果您能澄清一下哪些方面發生了變化，以及預計今年晚些時候是否會恢復，那將會很有幫助。

Thanks, Michael. The two big areas from a timing perspective that I would note, one is R&M expense, and that is just one of those things. It's a combination when things break and when you spend, and when you think about year-over-year comparisons, it can be -- we were a little bit heavier last year than we were this year so timing on that line.

謝謝，麥可。從時間角度來看，我要指出的兩個大領域是研發費用，這只是其中之一。這是事情發生和花錢的結合，當你考慮到同比比較時，可能會發現——去年我們的負擔比今年重了一點，所以時間安排是這樣的。

But the bigger one is the one you talked about, which is marketing. And we don't spend to a budget on the marketing line item. We spend the opportunity to deploy marketing dollars in a way that gets us a good return on that incremental spend. And it's a line item that you've seen for years for us is going to have some volatility in it throughout the year. When you combine that, it was the same way last year, right?

但更大的問題是您談到的行銷。我們不會在行銷項目上花費預算。我們利用這個機會來部署行銷資金，以便讓我們從增量支出中獲得良好的回報。這是我們多年來一直看到的一個項目，它在全年都會有一些波動。綜合起來看，去年的情況也是一樣的，對嗎？

If we find compelling opportunities to deploy marketing spend that gets us a good return, when you think about it in conjunction with how we're pricing, there are going to be years where in the first quarter we press on that pedal a little bit more. They're going to be years like this year where we pull back on that a little bit. But our expectation for the year is that while we may have pulled back a little bit on that in the first quarter, our expectation is there's more likely than not an opportunity for us to press down on the pedal a little bit more later in the year.

如果我們找到了極具吸引力的機會來部署行銷支出，並為我們帶來良好的回報，當你結合我們的定價方式來考慮時，在未來幾年的第一季度，我們將會加大行銷投入。像今年這樣的年份，我們將會稍微減少一些。但我們今年的預期是，雖然我們可能在第一季稍微放慢了速度，但我們預計，今年晚些時候我們更有可能再加大力度。

So our expectation for the year in marketing hasn't really changed. It's just we were a little bit light in the first quarter.

因此，我們對今年的行銷期望並沒有真正改變。只是我們在第一季表現有點疲軟。

Hongliang Zhang, JPMorgan.

張宏亮，摩根大通。

I mean, it seems like the operating environment is still pretty mixed. I was just wondering if you're seeing more demand for the third-party management side from just operators looking to work with you?

我的意思是，看起來營運環境仍然相當混亂。我只是想知道，您是否看到希望與您合作的運營商對第三方管理方面的需求增加？

Thank you for the question. The short answer is yes. Obviously, the mix changes, right? So we've gone from saying the majority of our pipeline being development stores, new development stores. And as that has become increasingly more challenging, and we're seeing a decline in new supply.

謝謝你的提問。簡短的回答是肯定的。顯然，混合物發生了變化，對嗎？因此，我們不再說我們的大部分管道都是開發商店和新開發商店。隨著這項挑戰變得越來越嚴峻，我們看到新供應量正在下降。

It shifted a bit to more of the open and operating stores for a variety of reasons. Some has just stressed in this environment, and they recognize the value of the CubeSmart brand. Some of it is simply life events that cause an owner or an operator to want to retain CubeSmart. We're seeing a little bit less of the institutional activity, which is, again, no surprise if you've seen a little bit less overall activity on the on the acquisition front here given the climate, as you described. So that, I think, is the color and the short answer.

由於各種原因，該公司將業務轉向更多已開業和正在運營的商店。有些人只是強調在這種環境下，他們認識到CubeSmart品牌的價值。其中一些只是生活中的事件，導致所有者或運營商想要保留 CubeSmart。我們看到機構活動有所減少，正如您所描述的那樣，考慮到目前的形勢，如果您發現收購方面的整體活動有所減少，這也就不足為奇了。所以，我認為這就是顏色和簡短的答案。

Got it. And I guess that's my follow-up. I understand self-storage business is relatively more recession-resilient than other property types. But I was just wondering what -- how you think the business would react if we really do enter recession later this year?

知道了。我想這就是我的後續行動。我知道自助倉儲業務比其他類型的房地產更能抵禦經濟衰退。但我只是想知道——如果我們今年稍後真的陷入衰退，您認為企業會如何反應？

Well, I think you hit it spot on. And through short ones in the GFC, thinking about this since 1993, '94, typically, you just see customers who come to self-storage and rent because they find themselves wanting to cut back on expenses and they may move in with a friend and go from a one-bedroom to a two-bedroom and they have duplicative possessions. You may see folks moving home with mom and dad to save some money and again, duplicative possessions. It may take longer to find that post-college employment, and that may create a demand.

嗯，我認為你說得很對。透過全球金融危機的短暫經歷，思考一下 1993 年、1994 年以來的情況，通常情況下，你會看到顧客選擇自助倉儲和租賃，因為他們發現自己想要削減開支，他們可能會和朋友一起搬進來，從一居室搬到兩居室，擁有重複的財產。您可能會看到人們為了節省一些錢而搬去和父母一起住，並且再次節省一些財產。找到大學畢業後的工作可能需要更長的時間，這可能會產生需求。

So again, the beauty of the business is that through most cycles, we performed quite well. And then on the vacate side, there's always this misnomer that you're going to see an increase in vacates because of an economic recession. And our experience with that is that is just not usually the case in any material way.

所以，再說一次，業務的美妙之處在於，在大多數週期中，我們的表現都相當良好。而在撤離方面，總是存在著這樣一種誤稱，即由於經濟衰退，撤離人數將會增加。我們的經驗是，從任何物質角度來看，這種情況通常不會發生。

Brendan Lynch, Barclays.

巴克萊銀行的布倫丹·林奇。

I think your marketing spend has mainly been for paid search, but you've also commented in the past testing other channels. Can you provide an update on that? And any color on the progress of those initiatives?

我認為您的行銷支出主要用於付費搜索，但您過去也曾評論過測試其他管道。能提供最新情況嗎？這些措施的進展如何？

Sure. While the marketing efforts run, again, Brook from SEO, organic to paid and different costs associated with each of those. And then it expands into social media to varying types of other media advertisements on satellite radio, et cetera. And then more limited of recent vintage out of home, which would be advertising in an urban market like New York on bus kings or tails, et cetera. So it runs across the gamut, but you're spot on. The most -- the highest expenditure tends to be in the form of paid search.

當然。而行銷工作則再次從搜尋引擎優化、有機到付費，並且每種工作都涉及不同的成本。然後它擴展到社交媒體、衛星廣播等各種其他媒體廣告。然後是近期戶外廣告的更多限制，即在紐約這樣的城市市場的公車頭或車尾上做廣告，等等。因此它涵蓋了整個範圍，但您說得對。最多的－最高的支出往往是以付費搜尋的形式出現的。

Great. That's helpful. And maybe just help us understand what leads to more kind of high-level brand recognition type marketing on buses or on satellite radio versus the much more targeted search-oriented spend?

偉大的。這很有幫助。也許只是幫助我們理解什麼導致了在公車或衛星廣播上進行更多類型的高水準品牌認知行銷，而不是更有針對性的搜尋導向的支出？

Yeah. Ultimately, right, your highest brand level recognition is the store itself. And so just think about you're a consumer, and you're going to see, although I don't know why you would, the Brooklyn Nets play basketball and you're walking down Atlantic Avenue, and you're seeing three beautiful CubeSmart's as you take your stroll. And so now it's top of mind, right? So that's giving you the most brand recognition, and that's why we see a disproportionate amount of SEO given our dominant New York City presence with those great assets.

是的。最終，對的，您最高的品牌認知度就是商店本身。所以想像你是消費者，你會看到，雖然我不知道你為什麼會看到，布魯克林籃網隊打籃球，你走在大西洋大道上，你會看到三個漂亮的 CubeSmart。所以現在它是最受關注的，對嗎？因此，這會為你帶來最大的品牌認知度，這就是為什麼我們看到不成比例的 SEO 數量，因為我們在紐約市擁有主導地位，擁有這些優秀的資產。

And so now it's in your mind. Now you may because we know where you're walking and you're listening to one of the satellite radio, you get an ad, that's further reinforcement, et cetera. But until you have an actual need, right, that's just giving you kind of that back of mind brand awareness. No different than in the '90s, you wanted to build your store on the nice street halfway in between the nicest multifamily in town and the most popular shopping center in town, you wanted those cars coming back and forth and seeing your doors. So then when the need occurs, right, your top of mind, that's when instead of searching for self-storage near me, which would be the most ubiquitous term, you direct to CubeSmart and then you find us great customer service.

現在它就在你的腦海裡。現在您可能因為我們知道您在哪裡行走並且您正在收聽衛星廣播之一，所以您會收到廣告，這是進一步的強化，等等。但是，直到你有實際需求之前，這只是給你一種心理上的品牌意識。和 90 年代沒什麼不同，你想把你的商店建在城裡最漂亮的多戶住宅和城裡最受歡迎的購物中心中間的漂亮街道上，你想讓那些來來往往的汽車看到你的門。因此，當需要出現時，您首先想到的不是搜尋「我附近的自助儲存」（這是最普遍的術語），而是直接存取 CubeSmart，然後您會發現我們提供優質的客戶服務。

We have the cube to satisfy your need in your rent.

我們有立方體來滿足您的租賃需求。

I'll now turn the call back over to Chris Marr, President and CEO, for closing remarks. Please go ahead.

現在我將把電話轉回給總裁兼執行長 Chris Marr 作最後發言。請繼續。

Thank you all for listening. I think the themes that clearly you're getting is it's prudent at this point to neither be [Aliana], or chicken little. We're going to work through the opportunity set that's provided to us and what we can assure you is that we will be maximizing that opportunity and focused on delivering shareholder value.

謝謝大家的聆聽。我認為您清楚了解的主題是，此時明智的做法是既不要成為 [Aliana]，也不要膽小怕事。我們將利用提供給我們的機遇，我們可以向您保證的是，我們將最大限度地利用這一機會並專注於實現股東價值。

So thank you all very much for taking your time here today, and we look forward to speaking to you again after the second quarter. Take care.

非常感謝大家今天抽出時間，我們期待在第二季後再次與你們交談。小心。

Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's call. Thank you all for joining, and you may now disconnect.

女士們、先生們，今天的電話會議到此結束。感謝大家的加入，現在可以斷開連線了。