Driven by demand from cloud service providers and large tech companies, Dallas-Fort Worth had the third-highest data center leasing activity in North America in 2020, according to CBRE’s latest North American Data Center Trends Report. Dallas-Fort Worth had 33.7 megawatts (MW) of net absorption in 2020, up 30.6 percent from 2019 as the region had an uptick in enterprise leasing activity. The market’s vacancy rate dropped to 18 percent despite the addition of 39.5 MW of inventory during 2020.

Pricing will remain low until supply tightens further and limits competition among service providers for every transaction.

“Leasing picked up in the second half of the year as enterprise users executed on requirements that had been on hold due to uncertainty around the pandemic,” said Brant Bernet, senior vice president, CBRE. “The continued migration of business from other parts of the country to the Dallas area will help accelerate data center market growth.”