INTELLIGENT BRANDS // Data Centres
Investors expect boom in
European data centres in
next two years
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the flip side, the continuing weakness of the
sterling means UK assets may look like a
bargain for Eurozone investors.
In an increasingly interconnected world,
with an ever-expanding need for data
storage facilities, respondents are expecting
rent charges to increase for data centres
with superior technology, with over a third
expecting the increase to be 10% or more.
The majority of respondents chose Germany
as the European country that will see the
biggest growth in data centre project
investment over the next 24 months.
Investors also expect the UK to see some of
the biggest investment growth in the industry,
followed by the Netherlands and France.
T
he vast majority (92%) of debt and
equity investors surveyed expect
the overall value of investment
into Europe’s data centre infrastructure to
increase over the next 24 months, according
to research commissioned by DLA Piper.
Data centres are used by organisations
for the remote storage, processing and
distribution of large amounts of data and
are currently estimated to use 3–4% of the
world’s power.
According to DLA Piper’s report, European
Data Centre Investment Outlook:
Opportunities and Risks in the Months
Ahead, investors anticipate an investment
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increase in data centres of between 10%
and 29% over the next two years.
Data from Acuris in the report shows that
the first half of 2019 saw a notable rise
in investment – with €1 billion flooding
into the data centres market in H1 alone,
compared with a total of €1.5 billion for the
whole of 2018.
Data centre investment levels in Europe have
been impacted by Brexit uncertainty. All
respondents agreed that it has negatively
impacted the data centre infrastructure
market since June 2016, with 56% of equity
investors going as far as to say that the
negative impact has been ‘significant’. On
Commenting on the findings, Partner and
Head of the infrastructure sector, EMEA and
Asia Pacific, at DLA Piper, Martin Nelson-
Jones, said: “Investment into European data
centres has spiked recently, with transaction
values reaching a new high. Figures for the
first half of 2019 suggested strongly that
another record year could be in sight. While
not without risks, data centres are attractive
to many infrastructure investors.”
Intellectual Property & Technology partner at
DLA Piper, Anthony Day, said: “What makes
data centres so attractive to many investors?
Strong fundamentals help.
“While data centre investment can involve
a higher level of risk as compared to other
types of infrastructure assets, demand
for Big Data, cloud computing, Artificial
Intelligence and the Internet of Things
is rising significantly. The macro trend is
that these technologies drive significantly
increased demand for data and digital
services and, by extension, the buildings and
equipment that make them possible.” n
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