Drive-Up Units (Garage Parks) Grow In Popularity in germany

While Germany’s institutional investors are still picking through the market for steady, yield-bearing assets in a financing environment that remains stubbornly expensive and murky, a quieter niche is beginning to stir. REFIRE intends to drag it out of the shadows and into the spotlight.

This rising segment? Garage Parks — not the stacked, fluorescent-lit indoor storage facilities you might see tucked above a discount grocer. These are modular, drive-up units, typically 18 to 40 square meters, placed in commercial zones or on city fringes. Tenants can drive right up to their unit and use it for anything from stashing furniture and storing vintage cars to housing business gear or setting up a small workshop. Flexible, functional, and profitable — yet still overlooked in Europe’s real estate landscape.

Undersupplied, underpriced, underestimated

Germany counts roughly 600 garage park facilities, a figure dwarfed by the tens of thousands operating in the US. According to research by Daniel T. Borger — widely considered the country’s leading specialist in this sector — the German market could support up to 10,000 parks, with Europe-wide potential above 50,000.

Demand is rising fast, spurred by urbanization, lifestyle shifts, mobility trends and shrinking living spaces. Garage Parks are particularly appealing for investors chasing low-capex, ESG (environmental, social, governance)-aligned assets. They require minimal energy, no heating, no on-site staff, and have low emissions. With modest construction costs, increasing rents and consistently high occupancy, institutional interest is beginning to warm.

REFIRE hosts inaugural Garage Parks symposium

To meet this growing curiosity, REFIRE hosted Germany’s first Garage Parks symposium in September in Frankfurt. This half-day gathering united investors, developers, alternative asset managers and service providers to examine the sector’s growth, scaling models, and operational approaches. Sessions covered market trends and expansion forecasts, automation, digitization and AI applications, financing and development structures, and more.

Watch this space

Whether you’re a private equity investor eyeing value plays, a mid-sized developer considering modular growth, or an institutional fund searching for the next alternative asset story, Garage Parks merit attention, and in Germany, they may be the next real estate growth story.