Joseph D. Russell
President and Chief Executive Officer at Public Storage
Thanks, Ryan. Good morning and thank you for joining us. I'd like to begin with the obvious. Overall, business is excellent. I do want to thank the entire team at Public Storage for their efforts. Our team members from our properties to the corporate office and back are focused on driving this level of performance.
Across our industry and consistently throughout our markets, more customers than ever before have been drawn to the benefits of using self-storage. We have often characterized additive demand coming from life events, which we refer to as the four Ds: divorce, death, dislocation and disasters. Over the last several quarters, a fifth D has emerged: decluttering. Customers need more space at home due to the shifts in working and living environments across all markets. Unfortunately, the customers that have come to us during the pandemic are now behaving more like traditional customers, meaning they are staying in place as they have come to appreciate the convenience and cost benefit of using self-storage, particularly as residential and commercial spaces become more expensive.
With that said, demand remains historically strong. In the third quarter, our revenue, NOI and cash flow per share foot reached record levels once again. As we wrap up 2021, the outlook for 2022 and beyond is favorable as well. The utilization rate of self-storage continues to climb as it has for decades, which is now at 11% of the U.S. population. Millennials and Gen Zs, two big user groups are aging into our core customer life stage, driven once again by the five DS. And Public Storage is leading the self-storage industry's transformation towards a customer experience that provides digital, as well as traditional options across the entire customer journey. We have a deep-seated commitment to listen to what our customers want, and they are giving us vibrant input that directs our priorities. This has led to some exciting changes in our customer offerings.
One example we have spoken to is our industry-leading eRental platform. Today, nearly 50% of our customers are renting with us through the eRental online lease. Year-to-date, nearly 500,000 customers have chosen eRental to secure a unit. It's fast, intuitive and self-directed, taking just a few minutes to complete a rental; an option many customers have been anxious to use. And the quality of this customer has been impressive. In early 2021, we also introduced the PS app which nearly 1 million customers have now downloaded, allowing easy tools to manage their account and navigate our properties digitally and hands-free. These are two great examples of how our investment in technology is transforming our operating model and it's a win-win for both customers and our operating efficiencies.
Daily headlines across multiple industries, however, remind us there are challenging consequences impacting the economy in terms of labor pressure and self-storage is not immune. We are actively investing in our team through increased wages and new more specialized positions that are providing even greater upward mobility for our skilled property teammates.
On the leadership front, we have also strengthened our ranks and announced yesterday that David Lee has joined Public Storage as Chief Operating Officer. David previously served as Senior Vice President of Operations for the UPS Store with responsibility for more than 5,200 retail locations in the U.S. and Canada. We are excited to have him on board.
Now to another area, I'm pleased to share with you our external growth initiatives. Our four-factor external growth platform is centered on acquisitions, development, redevelopment and third-party management. All areas are seeing strong growth.
Starting with acquisitions, in 2021, the self-storage industry will likely see approximately $18 billion or more of assets trade. This is a tremendous amount of volume and opportunity. Owners have been motivated to bring assets to market to monetize their investments, while some also plan for potential tax changes. Year-to-date, we have acquired or under contract on $5.1 billion of acquisitions or about 30% of the industry volume this year. This is comprised of 233 properties across 21.1 million square feet with average occupancy of 56%, which is providing us a significant embedded growth opportunity once we place these assets on to the Public Storage Platform. The transaction span a wide spectrum of geographies, portfolios and one-off purchases with both market and off-market deals. We continue to be looked at as a preferred buyer based on our knowledge, transaction efficiency and ability to easily fund transactions.
Of note, 65% of this quarter's volume is tied to the All Storage portfolio, which we are acquiring for $1.5 billion. All Storage is a high-quality portfolio of 56 properties primarily located in Dallas Fort Worth. Dallas Fort Worth has been one of the best storage -- self-storage markets over the past 15 years with population growth nearly 2 times that of the national average. Our own portfolio in Dallas Fort Worth produced annual NOI growth of 150 basis points higher than our national average. The All Storage properties also give us additional exposure to new higher-growth sub-markets, particularly in and around Fort Worth. Many of the properties were recently developed, resulting in a current 75% occupancy level, which provide significant upside as we move them on to our industry-leading platform.
The transaction is immediately accretive to FFO and accretion will accelerate through to stabilization at nearly 6% direct NOI yield. And combined with owned and other assets under contract, we are expanding our already significant platform in this vibrant market to approximately 200 assets or by 64%. The remaining 35% or $1.1 billion of the acquisitions closed or under contract will provide significant growth as well. These assets are geographically diversified across the country, comprise of single acquisitions to smaller portfolios ranging in size from $40 million to $200 million, totaling 3.9 million square feet with average occupancy of 50% at $179 per square foot.
Now to development and redevelopment where our pipeline has grown by $70 million to $731 million this quarter. We are seeing good opportunity to build new properties from the ground up in addition to expanding our existing assets. Nationally, our development team is underwriting well-located land sites as we continue to leverage our expertise as the largest developer in the self-storage industry. This quarter we also added 28 properties to our third-party management platform, increasing properties under management to 145. We plan to reach 500 assets by 2025. Of note, we have also acquired 14 assets from our third-party management platform as well.
In summary, since the beginning of 2019, we have expanded our portfolio square footage by 22% with a total investment of approximately $7 billion equaling 36 million square feet for an average of $193 per square foot, which has clearly produced strong growth and value creation that we expect will continue.
Now I will turn the call over to Tom.