- APAC Operational capacity forecast to reach ~24,000 MW
- APAC colocation rent revenue projected to reach US$44 billion annually by 2030
- Top five markets to each generate over US$4 billion in colo revenue per year
The Asia Pacific region is on track to overtake the United States as the largest colocation data centre market by both capacity and rental revenue before 2030, according to analysis from Cushman & Wakefield.
The Asia Pacific Data Centre Investment Landscape report, which explores key metrics driving investment activity in the sector, showed that by 2030 the APAC region is likely to have around 23,904 MW of capacity, compared to around 18,256 MW in the U.S.
Head of Insights and Analysis for Cushman & Wakefield’s Asia Pacific Data Centre Group Pritesh Swamy said:
“Various forecast models show that Asia Pacific will overtake the United States as the largest colocation market in either 2028 or 2029. Based on the population differential, this is expected—but still significant given the depth and maturity of the US market.”
From a rental perspective, this equates to annual colocation rent of approximately US$44 billion across Asia Pacific in 2030, with 72% of that being generated across the five largest markets by capacity: Japan, Chinese mainland, Australia, India and Malaysia. (Malaysia is expected to overtake Singapore as the fifth largest market in or around 2029).
Japan alone will account for 22% of the regional colo revenue—around US$9.6 billion in 2030—while the other four top markets are each expected to generate more than US$4 billion per year.
Development profiles are changing
Swamy said Asia Pacific’s higher proportion of operational colocation capacity, combined with higher average colo rents on a per kW basis, helped to drive the region’s average rental rates above those in the US.
Colocation stock currently accounts for 58% of operational capacity in the US, compared to 85% in Asia Pacific. However the development pipeline shows this gap will continue to narrow. By the end of the decade, colocation will account for 86% of operational capacity in APAC compared to 61% in the US, with this number rising to 86% in the years that follow as hyperscales increasingly look to colocation providers to meet the pace of cloud and AI demand.
Swamy said that while forecasting beyond 2030 was difficult due to the rapidly changing landscape, current development pipelines beyond this time showed the quantum of development in the US could see the US again overtake Asia Pacific in colocation market size.
About the Asia Pacific Data Centre Investment Landscape report
The inaugural report looks at some of the key market indicators, aggregated across 14 APAC data centre markets, driving the capital market and investment trends across the rapidly growing sector including
- Population per megawatt
- GDP and regional demand
- US Direct Investment into Asia Pacific
- CapEx requirements
- Rent revenue and cap rate estimates
- Yield on cost
Read the Asia Pacific Data Centre Investment Landscape report here.
