Real estate consultancy CBRE expects that the price of data center capacity in Europe’s FLAPD markets will rise by 12 percent this year.

According to the group’s research, the cost of securing 20MW or more of future capacity in 2026 is expected to reach as much as £145 ($193) per kilowatt in London and €145 ($168) per kilowatt across the other four largest European markets, which include Frankfurt, Amsterdam, Dublin, and Paris.

CBRE attributes this to a shortage of available supply and a phenomenon of premium pricing.

“Larger, more technically complex data centers require advanced cooling systems and higher-specification infrastructure, which significantly increases build costs. As demand for these environments grows and availability tightens, providers are increasingly passing these costs on to customers,” said CBRE’s director of European data center research, Kevin Restivo.

The methodology behind CBRE’s study was not provided, and it is unclear how many data center operators and users were surveyed.

According to CBRE’s data on European data centers in Q4 2025, vacancy rates hit an all-time low in Europe and are expected to drop to 5.7 percent by the end of the year. This is a three percent drop from 2025.

The consultancy also expects that data center supply will exceed take-up by around 138MW this year, and it previously attributed this to strong demand from neoclouds and hyperscalers.