According to a report from Cushman & Wakefield released on Thursday, the vacancy rate for data centers in the Americas has decreased to 3%. This is due to more than 80% of deliveries being pre-leased in major markets, leading to higher lease rates. However, there have been delays in new supply due to slower power and component lead times.
The demand for artificial intelligence (AI) and cloud data centers has significantly increased during the first half of 2024, both in established and emerging markets. As a result, absorption levels are expected surpass those seen in 2023. Despite an increase in supply pipeline, demand continues to outpace it which has resulted consistently declining vacancy rates.
Bo Bond, executive managing director at Cushman & Wakefield stated that there is a growing interest among hyperscalers and operators for large-scale power availabilities as well as plentiful land with less strict latency requirements for AI. This trend has led them expand into peripheral markets such as rural Georgia,North Carolina,Pennsylvania,Texas ,Minnesota,and The Dakotas along with other areas just beyond the established “major” data center markets.
