Data centre boom that has been going on for years will continue to grow

The data centre market, which has been expanding for a long time, has continued to gather pace over the past five years and has become a real boom. Cloud providers such as AWS (Amazon Web Services), Microsoft, Google and Oracle are the main drivers of the ever-increasing demand. As a result, data centres have now become an attractive and high-performance investment alternative to traditional commercial real estate. Against the backdrop of advancing digitalisation in all areas of life and the economy, not least in what is perhaps the most important growth market of artificial intelligence (AI), the demand for data centres will continue to increase in the coming years. At the same time, investor interest will also grow noticeably, so there is much to suggest that data centres will have the greatest growth potential of all asset classes in terms of capital values over the next one to two years.

As early as 2000, BNP Paribas Real Estate recognised the long-term opportunities and prospects of this market and established a separate division that focuses exclusively on the data centre asset class as well as operators, end users and investors. Even during the dotcom boom up to 2005, BNP Paribas Real Estate brokered numerous transactions through the sale of properties in Europe. Over the past ten years, the Data Centre Solutions team has not only confirmed the market leadership it has built up over many years in Germany, but has also significantly expanded it. Since 2018, the division, which is led by Arno Petzold in Germany and comprises seven consultants across the country, has advised on a total of 26 sales of green and brownfield sites to data centre developers and operators in Frankfurt and Berlin with a total area of around 875,000 m² and a transaction volume of over €860 million.

In the two most important German markets for data centres, Frankfurt and Berlin, BNP Paribas Real Estate was involved in almost all brokered transactions in this market segment. In the Frankfurt market area alone, the property consultant has advised on and brokered 21 transactions in the past five years. These deals played a key role in Frankfurt-Sossenheim becoming the new hotspot of the highly specialised data centre market: All of the data centre project sites developed there for CyrusOne (formerly Zenium), Digital Realty Trust and Colt were brokered by the Data Centre Solutions team.

Other landmark transactions included the two mandates of BEOS AG for the sale of the Osthafen IT and business park on Frankfurt's Ratswegkreisel (2020, buyer Interxion) and the implementation of a structured bidding process for the partial sale of a data centre project site in the FRANKFURT WESTSIDE development area for a project company of BEOS AG and Swiss Life Asset Managers in Frankfurt-Griesheim (start: January 2022). BNP Paribas Real Estate also brokered the site of the former Coca-Cola bottling plant in Liederbach am Taunus near Frankfurt (which Coca-Cola closed last summer after more than 50 years) to Stack Infrastructure. Four data centre construction phases with a planned capacity of 80 MVA are being built on an area of around 70,000 m².

The Data Centre Solutions team is currently working on over a dozen other projects throughout Germany. The challenge is to find suitable plots of land for the customers with, among other things, the ability to obtain planning permission, the availability of electricity or the utilisation of waste heat. The specialists at BNP Paribas Real Estate can draw on many years of experience and their corresponding, highly complex knowledge of the market.

Press contact:
Chantal Schaum - Tel: +49 (0)69-298 99-948, Mobile: +49 (0)174-903 85 77, chantal.schaum@bnpparibas.com
Viktoria Gomolka - Tel: +49 (0)69-298 99-946, Mobile: +49 (0)173-968 60 86, viktoria.gomolka@bnpparibas.com

About BNP Paribas Real Estate

BNP Paribas Real Estate is a leading international property services provider that offers its clients comprehensive services in all phases of the property cycle: Transaction, Consulting, Valuation, Property Management, Investment Management and Property Development. With 5,300 employees, the company supports owners, tenants, investors and the public sector in their projects thanks to local expertise in 23 countries (own locations and alliance partners) in Europe, the Middle East and Asia. BNP Paribas Real Estate is part of the BNP Paribas Group, a leading global financial services provider.

As part of its commitment to sustainable cities, BNP Paribas Real Estate aims to play a leading role in the transition to creating more sustainable real estate that is low-carbon, resilient, inclusive and conducive to well-being. To this end, the company has developed a CSR policy with the following four objectives: to improve the economic performance and use of buildings in an ethical and responsible manner; to enable a low-carbon transition and reduce the environmental footprint; to ensure the development, engagement and well-being of employees; and to be an active player in the property sector, building and promoting local initiatives and partnerships.

Further information: www.realestate.bnpparibas.com/

About BNP Paribas in Germany

BNP Paribas is a leading European bank with an international reach. The BNP Paribas Group has been active in Germany since 1947 and has successfully positioned itself in the market with 12 business units. Private, corporate and institutional clients are served by around 6,000 employees nationwide in all relevant economic regions. www.bnpparibas.de