Welcome to the fourth episode of Market Watch, the podcast from Mishcon de Reya where we explore the opportunities and challenges facing the real estate sector through conversations with key industry players.
In this episode, Partner Alice Burlingham and Managing Associate Olivia Fulton, speak with Stephen Beard, Global Head of Data Centres at Knight Frank.
Stephen has advised on over $2bn of data centre transactions, and has detailed knowledge of the EMEA, APAC AND LATAM markets. His sector network includes colocation customers, data centre operators, telecommunication providers and hyperscale cloud.
This podcast is brought to you by Mishcon de Reya, which has one of the largest full-service real estate teams in the UK.
Topics covered:
- Stephen's career, from acting to real estate and data centres
- The rise of data centres as an asset class
- Technological advancements and their impact on data centre growth
- Challenges in the data centre sector, including power and infrastructure issues
- Evolution of cloud computing and its impact on data centre demand
- Site selection criteria for data centres, including power and fibre connectivity
- The role of AI in shaping future data centre locations and requirements
- Government policies and regulatory challenges affecting data centre expansion
- Sustainability and ESG considerations in data centre development
- The potential for collaboration between data centres and life sciences
- The impact of zoning and planning regulations on data centre development
- The role of nuclear power and other energy sources in supporting data centres
- The importance of public and private sector collaboration in overcoming industry challenges
- The potential for data centres to support other asset classes and community development through district heating networks and other initiatives.