Hong Kong Rejoins Global Top Ten Data Center Markets, Ranked Second in Asia Pacific

• Hong Kong is in sixth position in 2022 data center global rankings
• Shanghai retains fourth-placed ranking for total market size

HONG KONG SAR – Media OutReach – 24 January 2022 – Asia Pacific’s data center market continues to grow at a relentless pace and is set to become the world’s largest data center region over the next decade. According to Cushman & Wakefield’s latest 2022 Data Center Global Market Comparison report, Hong Kong, Singapore and Sydney are ranked among the top 10 data center markets in the world.

Construction totals continue to grow globally, with 4.1 gigawatts (GW) currently underway in the markets covered, up from 2.9 GW in the previous study and 1.6 GW in the year before that. The largest clients continue to require larger builds, with 100 megawatt campuses becoming increasingly common.

Ranked outside the overall top 10 markets last year, Hong Kong makes a big jump in 2022, coming in at sixth place globally and second in Asia-Pacific. John Siu, Managing Director, Hong Kong at Cushman & Wakefield said: “Hong Kong offers a robust development pipeline, excellent networks and all major cloud services are available. The city also retains its crown as the globally lowest taxed data center jurisdiction. As a global financial and business capital, with a long history of pro-business policies it accordingly offers a robust data center sector.”

Mr. Siu added, “Strong demand from data center investors and operators have triggered high volume of transactions in 2021. For example, Mapletree acquired an industrial site via a government tender for a ground-up data center development, totaling circa 217,000 sf; ESR bought an industrial building (circa 294,000 sf) for a wholesale data center conversion; whereas GDS also purchased an industrial building for a data center redevelopment (circa 277,000 sf). In the next 5-year horizon, the city’s total new supply will amount to 5.5 million sf. That said, the supply pipeline in the medium to long term will be constrained by shortage of land and power supply in the popular data center submarkets, such as Tsuen Wan and Kwai Chung. To support the city’s development as a world-class data center market, it is therefore crucial for the government and power suppliers to break the bottleneck and increase land supply and power capacity into these submarkets.”

Shanghai retains its position as the world’s fourth largest data center market by total market size, with market capability of more than 0.6 gigawatts surpassed only by Northern Virginia, London and Tokyo. Beijing was ranked 13th for the same indicator.

Further growth in Asia Pacific is expected throughout at least the next five to 10 years, as the region requires entirely new builds due to a lack of existing infrastructure for retrofit. Globally, regions across Latin America and Africa are also expected to enjoy considerable growth in coming years, as new undersea cables are bringing faster access to many markets for the first time. Secondary markets across the world continue to grow, with many soon to reach current primary market size.

2022 Global Data Center Overall Rankings	2022 Global Data Center Market Size Rankings
1 – Northern Virginia	1 – Northern Virginia
2 – Silicon Valley (tie)	2 – London
2 – Singapore (tie)	3 – Tokyo
4 – Chicago (tie)	4 – Shanghai
4 – Atlanta (tie)	5 – Singapore
6 – Hong Kong	6 – Silicon Valley
7 – Phoenix	7 – Frankfurt
8 – Sydney	8 – Dallas
9 – Dallas	9 – Chicago
10 – Seattle (tie)	10 – Hong Kong
10 – Portland (tie)

Source: Cushman & Wakefield

“The horizon for the data center industry across the Asia Pacific region is exceptionally bright, thanks to deep hyperscale demand and the billions of dollars in development in progress to support these key tenants,” said Kevin Imboden, Cushman & Wakefield’s Director of Research for the Data Center Advisory Group. “The 1.3 gigawatts under construction in the APAC markets reviewed is a small fraction of what is in planning regionally, with much action and growth coming over the next decade.”

About the report

The Data Center Global Market Comparison is an annual report that assesses data center markets across the globe within 13 different categories to determine the top overall markets as well as the top performers in each of the 13 categories. For 2022, this report has been expanded to 55 global markets, including 1,333 data centers leading to the global top 10 markets. 

About Cushman & Wakefield  Cushman & Wakefield is a leading global advisory services firm that delivers exceptional value for real estate occupiers and owners, with approximately 50,000 employees in over 400 offices and 60 countries. In Greater China, a network of 22 offices serves local markets across the region, earning recognition and winning multiple awards for industry-leading performance. The firm had global revenues of US$7.8 billion in 2020 across core services including valuation, consulting, project & development services, capital markets, project & occupier services, industrial & logistics, retail and others. To learn more, visit www.cushmanwakefield.com.hk or follow us on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/cushman-&-wakefield-greater-china). #Cushman&Wakefield