Data Center Valuation
What a Data Center Is Worth: Cap Rates, Price per MW, Buying a Data Center and M&A
A fully leased Northern Virginia data center traded at about $27 million per megawatt this year; land with the same power trades under $1 million. The difference is retired risk. We produce the valuation analysis and diligence that prices it.
Get a Valuation AnalysisData center valuation is the estimate of what a data center, a portfolio or a development site is worth, and in 2026 the answer ranges more widely than for any other kind of commercial real estate. Stabilized, fully leased facilities are valued mainly on income: the net operating income from the leases divided by a capitalization rate, cross-checked against comparable sales per megawatt and the cost to rebuild. Development sites and platforms are valued on the power they control and the pipeline they can deliver. The widest gaps come from the same four risks every time: whether the power is contracted, who signed the lease and for how long, what the lease escalates at, and whether the building can serve the next tenant as well as the current one. In June 2026, Digital Realty agreed to buy Blackstone's stake in three fully leased Northern Virginia hyperscale data centers at a gross value of $7.8 billion for 288 MW, about $27 million per megawatt, at an expected initial stabilized cap rate above 6.5 percent. That is roughly one and a half times the average cost to build. The premium is paid for retired risk: power in place, 15-year leases, AA- credit and 3.6 percent escalators.
Figures as of September 2026. Sources: Digital Realty second-quarter 2026 results (Kansas City land and the Northern Virginia portfolio); DCD on the Aligned acquisition; Cushman & Wakefield 2026 cost guide. Per-MW figures are MCA calculations; land and platform values are per MW of planned capacity, not built capacity, so they are not like-for-like with the building values. Free to cite with a link to this page.
Send the asset: location, capacity, the leases or tenant in view, and the power position. You'll hear back within 24 hours from the principal who would run the analysis, with a first read on what drives its value and what would need to be verified before anyone relies on a number.
How Data Centers Are Valued
Appraisers, buyers and lenders use the same three approaches as for other real estate, weighted differently by the kind of data center. A fourth, the enterprise multiple, applies when the asset is really an operating business.
| Approach | How it works | Best for | Where it misleads |
|---|---|---|---|
| Income: direct capitalization | Stabilized net operating income divided by a cap rate | Leased, stabilized facilities, especially single-tenant hyperscale | When the NOI is not really stable: short leases, ramping tenants, pass-through power counted as income |
| Income: discounted cash flow | Projected cash flows over the hold, including lease-up, renewals, capex and an exit value, discounted to today | Assets still leasing up, multi-tenant facilities, anything with renewals inside the hold | When the renewal and exit assumptions do the work; a small change in exit cap moves value a lot |
| Sales comparison | Price per MW of comparable transactions, adjusted for lease, credit, market and density | A sanity check on any value; the language most investors price in | When comparables mix land, platforms and leased buildings, which trade on different bases |
| Cost: replacement cost | What it would cost to build the same capacity today, less depreciation, plus land | Owner-occupied and enterprise facilities; assessors often use it for hyperscale buildings | When the building cannot serve today's densities: cost to rebuild is not value if nobody would lease it |
| Enterprise multiple | A multiple of EBITDA for the whole operating business; the data center valuation multiples used in platform deals | Retail colocation operators and platforms with many customers, interconnection revenue and staff | When a real estate asset is priced like a growth company, or the reverse |
Data Center Cap Rates in 2026
A cap rate is stabilized net operating income divided by value; the lower the cap rate, the higher the price for each dollar of income. Data center cap rates are set mostly by tenant credit and lease length, then by market, density and the building's ability to serve the next tenant. Published ranges are reference points, not quotes; the transactions below show where real deals land.
| Asset | Cap rate or yield | What drives it |
|---|---|---|
| Leased hyperscale, Northern Virginiaa real 2026 transaction | Above 6.5% expected initial stabilized | 15-year leases, AA- blended credit, 3.6% annual escalators; priced at about $27M per MW |
| Stabilized hyperscale, single tenant | About 5.5% to 6.5% (reported range) | Tenant credit and remaining term; tightest for long leases to the strongest names |
| Net-leased data center, assessor's view | 6% used by Loudoun County for 2026 assessments | The county values net-leased facilities on income at a 6% cap rate, and enterprise and hyperscale buildings from construction cost |
| Wholesale or multi-tenant colocation | About 6% to 7% (reported range) | Shorter leases, more tenants, renewal and churn risk, operating intensity |
| Powered shell, stabilized | About 7% to 8% (reported range) | Lower rent per kW, tenant funds the fit-out, residual value depends on the next tenant's needs |
| Development, yield on cost | Digital Realty guided to 11.5% on its pipeline, mid-2026 | The return for taking construction, power and lease-up risk; the spread over stabilized cap rates is the development profit |
Sources: Digital Realty Form 8-K, June 2026 and Blackstone announcement; Loudoun County 2026 Data Center Guidelines; reported ranges from industry summaries of JLL Q1 2026 data. Ranges move with interest rates and credit; use them as reference points.
Data Center Price per MW
Price per megawatt is the language data center investors actually price in, but it runs on different tracks that cannot be mixed. The megawatt in a land deal is planned utility power; in a platform deal it includes pipeline; in a leased building it is delivered IT capacity with a tenant paying for it.
Leased, stabilized buildings
The highest values per MW: about $27 million in the 2026 Northern Virginia hyperscale portfolio deal, well above replacement cost, because the buyer is paying for contracted income and retired risk, not concrete.
Platforms and portfolios
Priced on the whole business, including development pipeline. Aligned's $40 billion enterprise value across 51 campuses and 6.4 GW of operating and planned capacity works out to about $6 million per MW, because much of that capacity is not built yet.
Land and power rights
The lowest per MW, and the most sensitive to the power position. Digital Realty's roughly $475 million for Kansas City land to support up to 2 GW is about $0.24 million per MW of planned power. See powered land for how that value climbs as the power work advances.
What rents support the income
Digital Realty's second-quarter 2026 signings averaged about $293 per kW a month for deals under 1 MW and about $156 for deals above it. Rents by market are on the colocation pricing guide.
What Drives Data Center Value
| Driver | What raises value | What cuts it |
|---|---|---|
| Tenant credit | Investment-grade tenant, or a parent guarantee on the lease | An unrated subsidiary, a startup, or concentration in one weak name |
| Lease | Long remaining term, fixed escalators, net structure, limited termination rights | Near-term expiries, below-market rent that will reset, landlord obligations for fit-out or expansion |
| Power | Energized capacity, room to expand, favorable tariff | Capacity that exists only on a utility letter; large-load tariffs with long take-or-pay commitments |
| Building | Density, liquid cooling capability, floor loading and clear height that serve the next generation of tenants | Air-cooled halls capped near 30 to 35 kW per rack, aging mechanical and electrical plant, deferred capex. See direct to chip cooling and AI and GPU colocation |
| Market | Low vacancy, rising rents, scarce power; primary markets at 1.4 percent vacancy | New supply arriving, tax incentives expiring, local opposition to expansion |
| Connectivity | Carrier density, cloud on-ramps, interconnection revenue | A single carrier path, or a location tenants cannot reach cheaply |
An independent analysis of the lease, the tenant's credit and alternatives, the power and the building's residual value is what moves an investment committee, or a buyer, off the number they started with.
Public Comparables: Data Center REITs
Listed data center REITs and operators, such as Digital Realty and Equinix, publish rents, occupancy, development yields and transaction pricing every quarter, and their trading values imply cap rates and multiples for their portfolios. They are the most transparent reference points in a market where most private deals are not disclosed. They are also imperfect comparables: a REIT's value includes its platform, pipeline, balance sheet and interconnection business, so its implied pricing rarely transfers directly to a single building.
Data Center for Sale: How Acquisitions Work
Very few data centers are ever listed for sale in the way an office building or warehouse is. Most change hands in one of four ways, and knowing which one you are in tells you who your competition is and how much time you have.
Single assets and portfolios
Leased buildings sold to REITs, infrastructure funds and pension capital, usually through the capital markets teams at the large real estate firms, often in a marketed process with a short diligence window. CBRE counted $1.7 billion of US data center investment sales in the first half of 2026, a thin total because most capital is going into development instead.
Joint venture stakes
A partner buying into, or out of, an existing venture, as in Digital Realty's purchase of Blackstone's interests in three Northern Virginia facilities. Pricing is set against a gross asset value, and the terms of the existing venture matter as much as the buildings.
Platform M&A
Data center M&A: whole operating companies bought for their portfolios, teams and pipelines, such as the $40 billion Aligned acquisition, the largest data center deal on record. These are valued as businesses, on pipeline and growth as much as on current income.
Enterprise and owner-occupied facilities
Companies selling a data center they own and run, often with a sale-leaseback, or disposing of one after moving to colocation or cloud. These are the facilities most often listed publicly, and the ones where condition and residual value need the closest look.
Sites and land with power rights trade separately; see powered land. Many searches for "data center for sale" find small enterprise facilities and listings with little power; the power documents, not the listing, tell you what you would be buying.
Buying a Data Center: What to Verify Before You Bid
The power, from the utility's documents
Energized capacity, contracted capacity and dates, the tariff and its take-or-pay terms, redundancy, and whether more can be secured. What the teaser says about power is a claim; the service agreement is the fact.
The leases and the tenants behind them
Remaining term, escalators, termination and expansion rights, landlord obligations, and the credit of the entity that signed, not the brand. For multi-tenant facilities, churn history and how much revenue sits with the top few customers.
The building's physical condition
Age and remaining life of the electrical and mechanical plant, generators and UPS, deferred capex, and the capital needed to keep the facility competitive. A low price on a building that needs a new cooling plant is not a low price.
What the building can serve next
Density per rack, whether liquid cooling can reach the white space, floor loading and clear height. This decides the residual value: whether the building leases again at a good rent when today's tenant leaves.
The market around it
Vacancy, rents and competing supply, and whether the rent in place is above or below market, which decides what happens at renewal.
Connectivity, contracts and permits
Carrier and fiber route diversity, cross-connect and interconnection revenue, service contracts, zoning, environmental and generator permits, and any tax incentive the income depends on.
The full checklist and how an engagement runs are on the data center due diligence page.
Diligence before you bid, not after. Send the teaser or the data room access you have, and we will tell you within 24 hours what drives the value and what has to be verified before the price means anything.
Data Center Sale-Leaseback
In a sale-leaseback, a company that owns and occupies its data center sells it to an investor and leases it back on a long lease, releasing the capital tied up in the building while staying in it. It works best when the occupier's credit is strong, the lease is long and the building will remain useful; the price depends on the same things as any leased asset, so the lease terms the seller offers decide much of the value it receives. It is also worth comparing against selling outright and moving: for an aging enterprise facility, placing the workload in modern colocation can beat leasing back a building that needs capital. See data center migration.
We compare the three options side by side: lease it back, sell it outright, or move into colocation. The colocation side is priced at no cost to you, because the provider you choose pays us; the sale analysis is a fixed-fee engagement. You'll hear back within 24 hours.
Selling a Data Center
Know what the buyer will find
Buyers price the risks they find in diligence. A seller who has already documented the power, the leases and the building's condition sets the terms of the conversation instead of reacting to it.
Fix what cuts value cheaply
Extending a key lease, clarifying the power agreement or resolving a permit before marketing often adds more value than any price negotiation.
Choose the right buyer pool
REITs, infrastructure funds, operators and hyperscalers value the same asset differently. The best price usually comes from the buyer who needs what the building does best.
How We Help
We are independent of every buyer, seller, operator and lender, and paid by the client at a fixed fee agreed in writing, typically $50,000 to $195,000 depending on scope. We are not a real estate broker and do not run sale processes; we produce the analysis that buyers, sellers and their brokers and lenders rely on.
For buyers and investors
Commercial due diligence and valuation analysis before you bid: power, leases, tenant credit, building condition and capability, market and residual value, written for an investment committee.
For sellers and owners
A pre-sale analysis of what drives value and what a buyer's diligence will find, so you fix it before marketing; and for enterprise owners, sale-leaseback versus sell-and-move.
For lenders and partners
Independent analysis on a loan, joint venture or recapitalization. See data center financing and data center consulting.
Know what a buyer's diligence will find before they do. Send the asset and we will tell you what drives its value and what is worth fixing before you go to market.
Frequently Asked Questions
How are data centers valued?
Mainly on income for leased, stabilized facilities: stabilized net operating income divided by a capitalization rate, cross-checked with a discounted cash flow, comparable sales per megawatt and replacement cost. Development sites and platforms are valued on the power they control and the pipeline they can deliver, and operating businesses on a multiple of earnings.
What are data center cap rates in 2026?
Reported ranges run about 5.5 to 6.5 percent for stabilized single-tenant hyperscale facilities, 6 to 7 percent for multi-tenant colocation and 7 to 8 percent for powered shells. A real 2026 reference: Digital Realty's $7.8 billion Northern Virginia hyperscale portfolio purchase priced at an expected initial stabilized cap rate above 6.5 percent, with 15-year AA- leases.
How much is a data center worth per MW?
It depends on what the megawatt is. A fully leased hyperscale building in Northern Virginia traded at about $27 million per MW in 2026; the average cost to build is about $17.6 million; the Aligned platform deal worked out to about $6 million per MW including pipeline; and land with power rights can trade under $1 million per MW of planned power.
Why are leased data centers worth more than they cost to build?
Because the buyer is paying for contracted income and retired risk: power delivered, a creditworthy tenant signed to a long lease, and rent that escalates every year. Replacement cost is what it takes to build the building; value is what the income is worth.
Can I buy a data center?
Yes. Most change hands off-market as leased assets sold to institutional investors, joint venture stakes, or whole platforms. Enterprise-owned facilities are the most often listed publicly. Whatever the route, verify the power, the leases, the building's condition and what it can serve next before you bid.
Where can I find a data center for sale?
Leased institutional assets are marketed through the capital markets teams at the large real estate firms; enterprise facilities appear on commercial listing sites; sites with power trade through land brokers and developers. The listing tells you little; the power agreement and the leases tell you what the asset is.
What should I check before buying a data center?
The power from the utility's documents, the leases and the credit of the entities that signed them, the age and condition of the electrical and mechanical plant, the density and cooling the building can support for the next tenant, the market rents and supply around it, and the connectivity, contracts and permits.
What is a data center sale-leaseback?
An owner-occupier sells its data center to an investor and leases it back on a long lease, releasing capital while staying in the building. It works best with strong occupier credit and a building that will stay useful; for aging facilities, selling and moving to colocation can be the better option.
What was the largest data center acquisition?
The roughly $40 billion acquisition of Aligned Data Centers by a consortium of the AI Infrastructure Partnership, MGX and BlackRock's Global Infrastructure Partners, which closed in July 2026. Aligned had 51 campuses and more than 6.4 GW of operating and planned capacity.
How do data center REITs relate to private valuations?
Listed REITs publish rents, occupancy, development yields and deal pricing every quarter, which makes them the most transparent reference points. Their share prices value whole platforms, though, so their implied cap rates and multiples rarely transfer directly to one building.
Is a valuation analysis the same as an appraisal?
No. A lender financing a purchase will require a certified appraisal from a licensed appraiser. A valuation analysis covers the market rent, lease and tenant quality, power, comparable pricing and risks that drive value; it is what the buyer, the appraiser and the credit committee rely on, not a substitute for the appraisal.
Do you help buy or sell data centers?
We provide independent due diligence and valuation analysis for buyers, sellers, investors and lenders at a fixed fee, paid by the client. We are not a real estate broker and do not run sale processes.
Before You Price the Deal
Buying, selling, lending or investing, send the asset: location, capacity, the leases or tenant in view, the power position and your timeline. You'll hear back within 24 hours from the principal who would run the analysis, with a first read on what drives the value and what needs to be verified. If the deal does not need us, we say so.
Every data center valuation turns on those four. Independent evidence on each is what holds the number.
Investing and transactions: data center developers, data center due diligence, data center financing, data center consulting, powered land and site selection.
Structures and costs: powered shell, build to suit, data center cost, data center lease, wholesale colocation, the colocation pricing guide and cloud repatriation.
Markets: Northern Virginia, Atlanta, Dallas, Chicago, data center tiers and provider comparison.
