The commissioning of data center racks in Russia fell from 14 thousand in 2024 to 5 thousand in 2025, the payback period increased from 6-8 to 10-12 years, and Moscow banned the construction of new data centers due to energy shortages – such data are provided by Kommersant. Most perceived this as news about the IT market, but the data center was the first to expose what has been happening with all commercial real estate for a long time: a meter without a resource ceases to be a product. Why objects with a shortage of capacity lose tenants and liquidity and what an owner who does not have enough resources should do, Konstantin Konov, an entrepreneur, investor and founder of YOUKON explains.
Why access to resources is important
The ban on the construction of data centers in Moscow has generated a lot of discussions about racks, servers and operators moving. However, the essence of the event is different.
A meter without a resource ceases to be a full-fledged product. We are gradually moving from a square meter economy to an infrastructure access economy. Previously, the investor looked at the area, location, condition of the building, and tenant. That’s not enough today. You need to understand whether the object has energy, engineering stock, transport connectivity, water, cooling, digital infrastructure, and the ability to scale.
A data center without electricity does not exist physically – this is obvious. An office without sufficient capacity is rapidly losing its appeal to the modern tenant. A warehouse without logistics and automation turns into a box. A retail facility without a host infrastructure becomes an expensive shell.
Commercial property no longer sells square footage. It sells the ability to use a limited resource. This is what becomes the new unit of value.
Two buildings, one location – and a different fate
Imagine two identical buildings. One has a supply of electricity, normal ventilation, parking, digital connectivity, the ability to adapt areas for different users. For the second, all this is limited. Formally, the footage is the same. The investment product is different.
The first object can be rented to stronger tenants, change function, protect the rate and be easier to sell. The second exists in the mode of restrictions: you cannot have such a tenant here, you cannot have such a format, you cannot have such a load.
The difference in price can be significant. According to our estimates, sometimes it is 5-10% of the premium, sometimes 20-30%. Sometimes a resource becomes the boundary between a liquid asset and an object that the buyer considers only at a large discount. Buyers do not pay for the resource itself. A resource is not an advantage, it is the right to participate in the next cycle of territory development.
The classic formula “location, location, location” has not gone anywhere – it just became incomplete. A second layer was added to it: “location plus resource plus script.” The investor has long been buying not a point on the map. He buys the site of a facility in the city’s future.
Who already depends on infrastructure
DPC is the most obvious case, but definitely not the only one. Infrastructure dependence has become widespread, and the resource is different in each segment.
Warehouses have long ceased to be boxes with gates. Modern warehouse logistics requires height, column pitch, cargo docks, floor load, IT systems, automation, electric transport charging, transport routes. An object that does not meet these requirements may be cheap to buy but weak to rent.
Professional investors already distinguish between a warehouse as an area and a warehouse as an infrastructure for the movement of goods: the first competes with price, the second with efficiency.
Offices depend on engineering, ventilation, electrical power, digital infrastructure, parking and the quality of common areas. When the tenant – an IT company, a financial team with a tight fit, or a medical operator – hits the capacity ceiling, the object begins to lose the most demanding users.
First, this manifests itself in negotiations: the tenant demands a discount or chooses another business center. Then – in the rate. Then – in liquidity. On paper, the object may remain class A, but buyers see it as a product with a restriction, and the restriction always turns into a discount.
Medical centers, light industrial, production formats – each has its own critical resource: wet points, ventilation, cargo access, sanitary zones. The mechanics are the same everywhere.
Where standard due diligence breaks
The classic check of the object looks at the legal issues, tenants, court cases, encumbrances, and technical condition. The resource part often remains at the level of “electricity is available.” It’s not enough.
You need to understand: what is the allocated power, how much is actually consumed, is there a reserve, is it possible to increase the limit, how much it costs, what are the connection terms, what is the reliability and how the backup is arranged.
Losses from missed due diligence occur in three places:
- the tenant cannot enter or scale;
- the owner is forced to make an expensive overhaul that was not included in the model;
- the facility loses liquidity because the next buyer sees the technical ceiling.
An investor who evaluates an object only at the capitalization rate and location sees the current profitability, but does not see its ceiling. He counts NOI, but doesn’t see if the facility can accept a stronger tenant or change function.
If an object does not have a resource for development, its profitability will eventually run into the ceiling. If the object is not able to accept the next, more demanding tenant, the market begins to evaluate it no longer by today’s cash flow, but by restrictions on future growth. That is why resource due diligence today is on a par with legal and financial one.
Moscow and regions: choice of scenario, not locations
The ban on the construction of data centers in Moscow made existing facilities a scarce asset. Regions – in particular, the Nizhny Novgorod region – offer sites with tax and land benefits, and cheaper energy.
Comparing them directly is a mistake. The Moscow data center gives a deficit, proximity to the client, high liquidity, but is limited in expansion and requires a high input threshold. A regional platform with cheap energy opens up a potential upside, but only if there is an understandable user, personnel resource, connectivity and long-term demand. Cheap energy without a client is not a business yet.
The choice between the two is a choice between two capital scenarios. Preferably, one where the future cash flow is more clearly visible. The resource is important, but capital comes not to the resource as such, but to an understandable model of its monetization.
Unused power is like a plot of land with untapped potential: valuable through a scenario, not on its own. Buyers are ready to pay for the resource reserve, but only if it is confirmed by documents and is associated with real demand.
What to do if there is not enough resource
The owner has an object without a capacity reserve – and tenants go where the resource is. The first step is to diagnose, not sell at a discount.
- Conduct a resource audit: what is allocated, what is consumed, where are the losses, what is the reserve, what can be redistributed.
- Optimize existing engineering: upgrade equipment, reduce inefficient consumption, rebuild the load between tenants.
- If the object does not withstand a high-tech tenant, change the user profile, and not try to compete where you knowingly lose.
The developer, who laid energy capacities “as in 2015,” faces the same choice: to strengthen the resource technically, reorient to another demand or sell at a discount. Selling is an extreme option when there is neither a technical possibility of strengthening, nor an alternative scenario. The main mistake is to pretend that there is no problem. The buyer will see it. It is better to formulate a scenario yourself than to wait for the buyer to formulate a discount.
Three owner questions that cost money
Question # 1: Which resource is critical for the future tenant? For one object, it is energy, for another – logistics, for the third – traffic or digital connectivity.
Question No. 2: Does the object have a reserve of this resource for three to five years in advance? Tenants will become more demanding, and not easier – the stock is needed not for today, but for the next cycle.
Question # 3: Is there a resource that reduces vacancy and increases liquidity? If the resource is present, but not monetized in any way, this is a technical fact. If it allows you to keep the rate and attract strong tenants, this is the cost that can be fixed when selling.
What matters to a commercial property owner
Imagine two business centers in one location. Similar facade, footage, class, and rate. One has a supply of power, good ventilation, parking, and digital infrastructure. In the second – everything is at the limit.
A strong tenant comes: an IT company, a medical operator, a financial team with a tight fit. The first facility accepts a tenant. The second explains why “it is difficult” and “there is not enough capacity.”
Six months later, the first holds a bet and reduces the vacancy. The second gives a discount and looks for a less demanding user. It is this gap – between the object ready for future demand and the object left in the last cycle – that is what the resource determines today.
In recent decades, the market has answered the question of where the facility is located. The next cycle will answer another question – what capabilities this object can provide. Because the cost of commercial real estate is increasingly determined not by the number of square meters, but by the volume of the future that this object can accommodate.