Record take-up of data centre capacity in Europe in ’25: CBRE
Take-up of data centre capacity in Europe is set to grow at its fastest rate in four years this year despite a shortage of available space, according to new research from CBRE.
Take-up of colocation data centre capacity – shared facilities where businesses rent space for their own servers, storage, and other computing equipment – is expected to grow to 855MW, or 22% year-on-year, in European markets this year. This compares to 699MW of capacity in 2024.
If CBRE’s projection is realized, it will set a new data centre take-up record for Europe and will represent the highest year-on-year growth of take-up in Europe since 2021, when demand for capacity spiked.
“We expect a buoyant year of take-up despite limited leasing activity in Q1”, said Kevin Restivo, Head of European Data Centre Research, CBRE. “Hyperscaler and AI requirements have led to greater demand that will manifest itself in record take-up this year.”
Almost half (46%) of the annual take-up this year is expected to be in London and Frankfurt, the two largest colocation data centre markets of Europe.
The appetite for capacity has grown despite the difficulties data centre providers are having sourcing power and available land for new facilities. Demand for hyperscale data centres, large-scale facility designed to handle extreme scalability and support massive workloads, is particularly high.
Hyperscaler requirements have multiplied, and this has led to the development of larger, wholesale facilities across Europe that are often single let. As a result, facilities of unprecedented size are expected to be built in Europe this year, according to CBRE.
Supply remains constrained, and demand for colocation data centre space is expected to exceed new supply in Europe for the third straight year. Providers have struggled to keep pace with demand which has led to an ongoing shortage of available capacity across Europe.
“Data centres form the backbone of cloud regions and artificial intelligence infrastructure in Europe, and we strongly believe the European colocation data centre space market is poised for continued heady growth”, said Restivo.
The situation is similar in Asia Pacific: according to a recent survey by CBRE, data centers are the clear favourite among alternative assets favoured by investors, capturing 63% of total votes in Q1 2025 compared to 49% in Q4 2024, and ahead of student housing which trailed at 41%.
