SmartStop Self Storage REIT Inc

INDEX TO CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

FOR THE YEAR ENDED DECEMBER 31, 2023

REPORT OF INDEPENDENT REGIST ERED PUBLIC ACCOUNTING FIRM

Board of Directors and Stockholders

SmartStop Self Storage REIT, Inc.

Ladera Ranch, California

Opinion on the Consolidated Financial Statements

We have audited the accompanying consolidated balance sheets of SmartStop Self Storage REIT, Inc. (the “Company”) as of December 31, 2023 and 2022, the related consolidated statements of operations, comprehensive income (loss), equity and temporary equity, and cash flows for each of the three years in the period ended December 31, 2023, and the related notes and financial statement schedule listed in the accompanying index (collectively referred to as the “consolidated financial statements”). In our opinion, the consolidated financial statements present fairly, in all material respects, the financial position of the Company at December 31, 2023 and 2022, and the results of its operations and its cash flows for each of the three years in the period ended December 31, 2023, in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America.

Basis for Opinion

These consolidated financial statements are the responsibility of the Company’s management. Our responsibility is to express an opinion on the Company’s consolidated financial statements based on our audits. We are a public accounting firm registered with the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States) (“PCAOB”) and are required to be independent with respect to the Company in accordance with the U.S. federal securities laws and the applicable rules and regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission and the PCAOB.

We conducted our audits in accordance with the standards of the PCAOB. Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the consolidated financial statements are free of material misstatement, whether due to error or fraud. The Company is not required to have, nor were we engaged to perform, an audit of its internal control over financial reporting. As part of our audits we are required to obtain an understanding of internal control over financial reporting but not for the purpose of expressing an opinion on the effectiveness of the Company’s internal control over financial reporting. Accordingly, we express no such opinion.

Our audits included performing procedures to assess the risks of material misstatement of the consolidated financial statements, whether due to error or fraud, and performing procedures that respond to those risks. Such procedures included examining, on a test basis, evidence regarding the amounts and disclosures in the consolidated financial statements. Our audits also included evaluating the accounting principles used and significant estimates made by management, as well as evaluating the overall presentation of the consolidated financial statements. We believe that our audits provide a reasonable basis for our opinion.

Critical Audit Matter

The critical audit matter communicated below is a matter arising from the current period audit of the consolidated financial statements that was communicated or required to be communicated to the audit committee and that: (i) relates to accounts or disclosures that are material to the consolidated financial statements and (ii) involved our especially challenging, subjective, or complex judgments. The communication of a critical audit matter does not alter in any way our opinion on the consolidated financial statements, taken as a whole, and we are not, by communicating the critical audit matter below, providing separate opinions on the critical audit matter or on the accounts or disclosures to which it relates.

Real Estate Purchase Price Allocation

As described in Note 3, for the year ended December 31, 2023, the Company completed the acquisition of one self-storage property and recorded $23.7 million to real estate facilities. The Company allocates the purchase price of a property to the tangible and intangible assets acquired and liabilities assumed based on their relative fair values as of the acquisition date, using valuation techniques, including (i) a discounted cash flow analysis, which considers, among other things, leasing assumptions, growth rates, discount rates and terminal capitalization rates and (ii) a market approach, which considers comparable sales activity.

We identified the estimation of the fair values of the land, and buildings and improvements used in the real estate purchase price allocation as a critical audit matter, because of the level of judgment required to estimate the fair values of the acquired land, and building and improvements, including the identification of comparable sales activity and the terminal capitalization and discount rate assumptions. Auditing these elements involved especially subjective auditor judgments due to the nature and extent of audit effort required to address these matters, including the extent of specialized skills or knowledge needed.

The primary procedures we performed to address this critical audit matter included:

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Evaluating the reasonableness of the terminal capitalization and discount rates used in the valuation models by comparing the rates used to third party market data.

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Utilizing personnel with specialized knowledge and skills in valuation to assist in evaluating the reasonableness of management’s selected comparable land sales by comparing to third party market data.

/s/BDO USA, P.C.

We have served as the Company’s auditor since 2017.

Costa Mesa, California

March 18, 2024