Data Center Demand Holds Up Amid Pandemic
Investors now spend more than ever for data center properties, relative to the income from the buildings.
August 24, 2020 | Bendix Anderson | National Real Estate Investor
With ever-increasing amounts of day-to-day activity taking place online, even more so under the COVID-19 pandemic, demand from large and small companies is driving robust growth in the data center segment. That’s making it an increasingly attractive investment play for real estate buyers looking for stability and yield.
“The pandemic has allowed the data center industry to prove its resiliency in a way that it never has before,” says Kristina Metzger, senior vice president and leader of data center capital markets for CBRE. “Regardless of what happens in the broader economy, people are still checking their emails.”
The amount of money investors spent to buy data center properties has grown in fits and starts since the last recession, peaking in the third quarter of 2017, when investors spent $4.1 billion on data centers, according to Real Capital Analytics, a real estate research firm based in New York City.
