Global Data Center Demand at An All-Time High, Says datacenterHawk

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The Q1 2022 Data Center Market Recap from datacenterHawk, a global data center real estate intelligence platform, reveals that global data center demand hit an all-time high in Q1 2022.

Photo David Liggitt, founder and CEO of datacenterHawk
“The data center industry is off to a strong start in 2022, marking significant growth in markets around the world,” said David Liggitt, founder and CEO of datacenterHawk.

The datacenterHawk team reviewed over 10,000 data center real estate data points collected from over 35 different markets spanning North America, Europe, and APAC during its lengthy study process at the conclusion of Q1.

“The data center industry is off to a strong start in 2022, marking significant growth in markets around the world,” said David Liggitt, founder and CEO of datacenterHawk. “The latest data on our platform reveals the shift in leasing and ownership approach from both hyperscale and enterprise users, highlighting the focus on securing demand needs for today and in the future. Our data indicates that absorption is increasing and most major markets are at their lowest vacancy rate ever.”

Global data center market highlights according datacenterHawk’s report include:

North America – In the first quarter of 2022, demand in the top 10 data center markets virtually topped that of the entire year of 2021. Year-over-year the average vacancy rate in key North American cities has declined from over 11 percent to 8.3 percent. Several markets that formerly had plenty of capacity now have much less leasable capacity. According to datacenterHawk, 2022 will be the biggest demand year in North America to date.

Europe – In the first quarter of 2022, the European data center area saw comparable demand. The datacenterHawk platform reveals that supply in major European data center markets is becoming increasingly difficult to meet as the area grapples with rising demand, supply chain issues, and rising power prices. Users and developers are going to secondary markets to find new homes for this data center demand, which is projected to persist in the long run, due to new restrictions recently enacted in several bigger markets.

APAC – Similar patterns were seen in the main APAC regions, with data center absorption rates much greater than in previous years in 2021. With a combination of retail, wholesale, and pre-leased hyperscale requirements, demand was high. Smaller markets, however, continue to attract interest due to problematic supply delivery in some of the major APAC data center hubs, which will be a trend to watch in Q2 2022.

Hawk Insight, a datacenterHawk product that features data center trends, activity, and pricing for more than 35 markets spanning North America, Europe, and Asia Pacific, provides real-time market data. The Q2 2022 Market Analysis from datacenterHawk is slated to be issued in July 2022.