Joe DownsCEO & Co-Founder, Belrose Storage Group. Founder, Storage Moguls.

Not a Spike - A Staircase - The Post COVID Demand Reality

25 Mar 2026 · 1 min

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Post-COVID demand increases aren't temporary spikes but permanent staircases, where each wave of new participants stays at a higher level. Private golf club memberships went from modest waitlists to extremely hard to join during the pandemic and have stayed that way, showing demand hasn't receded.

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2024 and beyond, the demand returned to the long-term trend line and continued to climb. That's not a spike, that's a staircase. Each COVID wave of new participants landed on a higher step and stayed there. That's the distinction that matters for investors. A spike reverses, a staircase doesn't. I want to ground this in what we've actually watched happen too, because this isn't just national data, it's what we've seen across our own markets. Again, golf club memberships. Before COVID a lot of private clubs had waitlists that moved slowly. During COVID they became nearly impossible to get into, and they've stayed that way.