Data centre industry suffers lull
- Reduce text size Decrease text size
- Increase text size Increase text size
- Print article Print
- Jump to comments Comment
- Share this article Share
- Email article to a friend Email
The lack of large space deals in the data centre sector has caused overall take up in the European market to plummet
The data centre industry has finally been hit by the recession, with overall take up of space in European data centres dropping significantly due to the decrease in capital-intensive shell (base, unfitted data centre) deals.
“In 2008, the average quarterly take-up in the shell market was 12,022 sq m; this quarter there was none,” says Andrew Jay, senior director of CB Richard Ellis (CBRE), which produces the quarterly European Data Centres report.
The overall quarterly take-up of space was 11,020 sq m, the lowest first quarter recorded since CBRE began tracking the statistics in 1999.
By contrast, take-up in the fourth quarter of 2008 was 54,300 sq m.
“The reasons are twofold,” explains Jay. “The downturn in the economy has had a huge impact on these highly capital-intensive projects; and secondly, the majority of investment banks have deployed their footprints over the last two years, resulting in reduced demand for 2009.”
The report also highlighted a renewed focus on power, with cost-conscious occupiers driving for greater efficiencies.
“Data centres are one of the few sectors where greener is cheaper,” it said.
