Energy risk is moving up the agenda for investment strategy, asset planning and location decisions across the EMEA region, with access to reliable and affordable power becoming a more decisive factor for real estate investors, according to new research from Colliers.
The company’s new ‘Building Resilience: 5 Megatrends Redefining Corporate Real Estate’ report identifies energy scarcity and security as one of five global megatrends redefining investment decision-making.
Ageing infrastructure, rising demand from data-intensive uses and the complexity of the energy transition are tightening supply in some markets, introducing new risks to development pipelines and asset viability.
Energy availability, reliability and regulatory exposure are starting to influence operating costs, delivery timelines and long-term value creation, particularly for assets with high or evolving power requirements, such as data centres.
Lottie Tollman, head of data centre advisory, EMEA, at Colliers, said: “Energy availability is fast becoming one of the most decisive factors in data centre strategy across EMEA. Power constraints are no longer a future concern – they are shaping site selection, delivery timelines and expansion plans today. Projects that fail to factor energy resilience into early planning risk being delayed, displaced or no longer viable as competition for capacity intensifies.”
