Overview
EMEA SUMMARY
We are pleased to present our Q4 2021 review of the EMEA data centre market.
2021 brought uncertainty as to what demand would look like after the accelerated buy-cycles of the initial COVID reaction. Supply growth continues to be strong across EMEA. After a drop off in growth in Q3 from the first half of the year, the fourth quarter saw the largest increase in new supply in 2021. Total supply for the region increased by around 628MW, compared with growth of 200MW in Q3 and 400MW in Q2.
After a record breaking 2020, strong growth continued across the EMEA region in 2021, with aggregate supply augmenting by 1582MW. This amounts to over 71% of the new supply seen in 2020 and equates to an increase of 17% compared with 2019. London, Paris and Dublin recorded the largest amount of new supply in region, with increases of 335.9MW, 290.2MW and 290MW respectively. In terms of take-up, public cloud operators accounted for the majority of demand in wholesale facilities, with 675MW of take-up recorded during the year, compared to 971MW recorded in 2020 and 593MW in 2019.
When looking at the Tier 1 markets, significant development announcements were notable in Paris, Frankfurt and London, with 287MW, 145MW and 105MW of new supply added to the markets respectively.
In Paris, Interxion filed an ICPE building permit to operate a data centre with a phased capacity of 130MW in Les Ulis, Paris. The first phase of the development is due to go live in the second half of 2023. CloudHQ are also awaiting a building permit for the development of a 148MW campus south of Paris.
In Frankfurt, Yondr announced plans for a 40MW data centre campus, which is expected to go live in 2024. Vantage started construction of its 40MW FRA2 facility and CyrusOne acquired a new site in Hanua, with construction of the first phase planned to start in Q2 2023. The operator is also expanding its FRA1 facility with 15MW under construction and a further 25MW phased.
Two new announcements in London account for the majority of new supply in the final quarter. Yondr secured planning for a 60MW data centre campus in Slough and Vantage obtained planning for a 48MW campus on Chandos Road, Park Royal. NTT opened a new facility and Virtus and Colt had phases go live in the quarter. London has recorded examples of new supply consistently, demonstrating operator confidence in the market.
Added to our EMEA market reporting this quarter is Cairo and Casablanca, with development and data centre activity in Africa intensifying. Both markets are regarded as being in the top five key data centre markets in the continent alongside South Africa, Nigeria and Kenya.
APAC SUMMARY
The Q4 2021 Knight Frank Data Centre Report continues our growing coverage of the Asia Pacific region. Market analysis includes both established data centre hubs such as Singapore, Hong Kong, Mumbai, Sydney, Seoul, and Tokyo; and fast growth markets including Hanoi, Bangkok, Shanghai, and Kuala Lumpur – to provide the most wide-ranging view of the region.
The momentum of Q3 carried into the fourth quarter, with several major announcements across key markets in Asia Pacific. Total supply (live, phased, and under construction) in APAC increased almost 185MW in Q4, bringing total capacity in the region to over 7,900MW. Take-up was around 120MW, moderating slightly from Q3 but in line with previous quarters. For the whole of 2021, IT capacity across APAC grew by over 1,500MW.
The gigawatt markets of Tokyo and Shanghai added significant capacity in 2021, adding between 300MW to 400MW each, to their respective markets. In Q4, AirTrunk’s TOK1 facility opened in Tokyo, with its first phase up to 60MW. STT also announced its plan for two data centres in Inzai totalling 60MW. In addition, Stack Infrastructure’s has plans for a 36MW campus, and Colt has secured land for two sites in Inzai and Northern Tokyo for 45MW.
The Chinese authorities have announced the setting up of four mega clusters of data centres in the north and west of the country. This was followed by an announcement of a further 10 national data centre clusters as part of a broader strategy to transport data from eastern regions of China to western regions for storage and calculation. On the back of government plans to classify data centres as infrastructure assets for easier access to funding, India also saw several major new investments into data centre platforms, including Hiranani-Yotta and Kotak-Sify.
In Southeast Asia, Singapore lifted its hold on new data centre builds after a two-year moratorium. Under a new pilot program, up to 60MW of capacity will be made available in 2022, to developments of between 10 to 30MW each. As part of the consideration, applicants for new data centre facilities will need to commit to achieving a PUE of below 1.3 and obtain Singapore’s Green Mark for Data Centres-Platinum certification – in addition to adding strategic value for Singapore. We expect this pathfinder approach to serve as a model to other countries looking to find the right balance between their digitalization and sustainability goals.
Growing interest is also seen in emerging APAC markets like Seoul, Osaka, Ho Chi Minh, and Bangkok.
