Data centre supply struggles to keep pace with demand: CBRE

Demand for European data centres outstripped supply in 2023 despite facilities of unprecedented size being delivered across Europe for the industry’s largest customers.

Take-up reached 601MW across the 14 largest markets in Europe compared to the 561MW of new supply completed in the same period. It was the second time in five years that take-up exceeded new supply in Europe according to CBRE research.

Furthermore, both take-up and supply were up on 2022 when 546MW was absorbed and 550MW was delivered in the region, respective increases of 10% and 2%.

Take-up in Frankfurt, London, Amsterdam, Paris and Dublin – the leading markets – was 252MW, which was 41% up on the preceding quarter’s 179MW, chiefly because of the delivery of pre-let capacity in Dublin, London and Paris.

“Hyperscalers have sought increasingly larger facilities that are tailored to their needs for some time,” said Kevin Restivo, head of European data centre research at CBRE. “The average size of new wholesale facilities in Europe has grown dramatically over the past two years and will only accelerate. However, there are fewer deals being struck by data centre providers with their largest customers.”

CBRE’s head of data centre solutions Andrew Jay said that demand in Europe will accelerate because artificial intelligence workloads are expected to generate higher demand for capacity.

“For the meantime, the challenge remains the lack of available power and AI-appropriate facilities across Europe,” he said.