Knight Frank and DC Byte expand data centre research to include Asia Pacific regions

Knight Frank – the global property adviser, and DC Byte – the leading resource for intelligence in the data centre sector, have announced that ‘The Data Centre Report’ has been expanded to include the Asia Pacific (APAC) region.

‘The Data Centre Report’ is the most comprehensive data centre market report available and now covers ten carefully selected markets representing a combination of established cities such as Singapore, Hong Kong, Mumbai, Sydney, Seoul and Tokyo as well as investigating new data centre destinations – Hanoi, Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur. The DC Byte team is also actively conducting research into Shanghai to provide the best view of the region yet.

According to the report, the development pipeline in the APAC markets stands at nearly 5,900MW with Shanghai and Tokyo recorded as the first Asian data centre markets to become Gigawatt Markets, with a supply pipeline exceeding 1,000MW IT power.  Shanghai with 1,058MW capacity whilst Tokyo follows closely with 1,008MW. Interestingly, the Mumbai market capacity has been reported to now exceed many European markets, including Paris, whilst attention also turns to the pending potential in new high growth in markets, such as Hanoi and Bangkok.

Across all the regions included in the report, total live capacity stands at 3,042MW, with a further 2,838MW either under construction or in committed phased development.

Demand for data centres in Asia-Pacific is expected to almost double in the next 3-5 years, with a further 2,838MW either under construction or in committed phased development. Across the ten markets tracked total live capacity stands at 3,042MW, with an additional 713MW supply added in 2020.  Growth was seen across all markets, with Tokyo and Shanghai notably reaching “Gigawatt Market” status, comparable with leading European markets of Frankfurt, London, Amsterdam, and Dublin. Another market to watch is Mumbai, which has now overtaken several European markets, including Paris, in terms of capacity.

“Demand from investors for information on APAC compelled us to expand our research coverage,” explained Ed Galvin, Founder and CEO of DC Byte.  “The Knight Frank APAC Data Centres Market Summary now represents the most comprehensive view of ten select markets, covering both the retail colo sector and self-build activity. It has been a genuine eye-opener to see a territory previously overlooked flourish and grow. Investment interest in these regions could suggest that the hyperscale activity seen to date in Europe is now expanding East.”

Two emerging data centre markets, Bangkok and Hanoi, have demonstrated high growth potential due to increasing economic firepower and large, technologically engaged, populations. Third-tier markets include Kuala Lumpur and Seoul with total capacity of 306 and 135MW respectively. Seoul has minimal penetration from international markets and is almost exclusively served by domestic colocation operators and telecoms companies. However, South Korea is increasingly of interest to US hyperscale companies whilst Kuala Lumpur is a smaller, faster growing, market.

Christine Li, Head of Research at Knight Frank, Asia-Pacific, said: “Asia-Pacific’s appetite for data is only set to grow with the roll-out of more 5G networks across the region, an increasingly connected digital population, as well as increased adoption of remote working arrangements. As such, most markets in Asia Pacific are supply constrained, resulting in more land-owners and developers redeveloping vacant or aged industrial properties to higher tiered data centres to ride on the next wave of growth.”

To view the report please click here.