When a sector demands as much capital as data centres, financing markets tend to reach for the nearest familiar template. In Asia Pacific, that template has largely been real estate. It is an understandable instinct: Data centres occupy land, sit inside buildings and generate long-term contracted income streams.
But traditional real estate lending falls well short of the total capital required in this rapid build-out. Land acquisition costs and construction of the shell and site, including mechanical, electrical and plumbing, represent only 6.2 percent of global capital investment in data centres to date, according to Fitch Ratings. Graphics processing units (GPUs) alone can account for well over half the total capital required.
As a result, developers are increasingly looking to novel funding st
