A recent report from Knight Frank in partnership with DC Byte found that strong demand fundamentals and a trend towards greater localization of data center facilities are being seen in Manila and several emerging markets across the Asia Pacific region.
Data center activities in Manila, Taipei, Hanoi and a handful of other cities continue to grow with global, regional and local players all getting in on the act as they seek to localize facilities. This surge in demand has led to some calling Asia Pacific the most exciting market for the data center industry.
“The insight from our latest report reinforces Asia Pacific’s position as the most exciting market in the global data center industry. More businesses are speeding up their digital transformations, and the demand for cloud services and lower latency has proliferated, resulting in cloud providers sourcing colocation and self-build facilities in previously overlooked cities,” Fred Fitzalan Howard, Data Center Lead APAC at Knight Frank, stated. “As these secondary cities continue to establish themselves as data center locations, opportunities will continue to arise across the M&A and development space.”
In Manila, approximately 163.81 MW of IT capacity currently exists. The figure includes live, early stage, committed and under construction projects. This total is expected to climb in the years to come as hyperscalers and data center operators continue to enter the market.
“During the last two years, Santos Knight Frank has seen an incredible level of inquiries from data center investors and operators in the Philippines equivalent to more than 220 MW. Players are looking for the next area of growth in emerging markets in Southeast Asia, and the Philippines–with its digital-user demographics–is among the preferred locations,” Monica Gonzalez, Santos Knight Frank Data Center Lead reported.
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