Investment into Europe’s data centre infrastructure is expected to grow over the next two years, after reaching €1bn (£853m) in the first half of the year.
Debt and equity investors are anticipating investment uplifts of between 10% and 29% over the period, according to research from law firm DLA Piper and media company Acuris.
The survey found that 92% of investors expect the overall value of investment to increase.
More than one-third of investors expect rent charges to increase by more than 10% for data centres with superior technology.
Data centres, used by organisations for the remote storage, processing and distribution of large amounts of data, are estimated to use 3-4% of the world’s power.
Around €1bn was invested in the data centre market during the first half of 2019, compared with an equivalent of €1.5bn for the whole of 2018.
However, investors said Brexit uncertainty has negatively affected the data centre infrastructure market since June 2016, with 56% observing that the impact has been “significant”.
Geographically, Germany was identified by investors as the country that will enjoy the most growth in data centre project investment.
Investors also predicted that the UK will see some of the biggest investment growth in the industry, followed by the Netherlands and France.
Martin Nelson-Jones, head of the infrastructure sector for EMEA and Asia Pacific at DLA Piper, said: “Investment into European data centres has spiked recently, with transaction values reaching a new high. Figures for the first half of 2019 suggest strongly that another record year could be in sight.”
Anthony Day, intellectual property and technology partner at DLA Piper, said: “While data centre investment can involve a higher level of risk as compared to other types of infrastructure assets, demand for big data, cloud computing, artificial intelligence and the internet of things is rising significantly.
“The macro trend is that these technologies drive significantly increased demand for data and digital services and, by extension, the buildings and equipment that make them possible.”
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