Colocation service prices in Moscow have increased by 13% to 147.5 thousand rubles, and in St. Petersburg — by 17% to 104.3 thousand rubles per year, according to iKS-Consulting and 3data. The main reason is the almost complete occupancy of data centers (DCs) in these regions, which account for 80–85% of all capacities in Russia. There are about 1.4 thousand free racks left in Moscow, and even fewer in St. Petersburg. This creates a shortage for large clients, forcing the market to look for new solutions.
High demand is associated with the concentration of business in the capital regions.
This is primarily due to the high concentration of the main consumers of data center services — large and medium-sized businesses.
New capacities, such as DC N1 in the Telecomplex NTV and MOS5 machine rooms from IXcellerate, have slightly increased the supply, but have not solved the problem of shortage. In the regions, on the contrary, there is a surplus of capacity, but clients are not yet in a hurry to transfer infrastructure there.
The price increase in the first quarter of 2025 was even more noticeable: 31.4% in Moscow and 10.9% in St. Petersburg. Customers require more powerful data centers, especially for artificial intelligence tasks. The high key rate (18%) is slowing down the construction of new facilities, as many projects are financed by loans. A rate cut, according to Pavel Bragin from MWS Cloud, could revive the market, attracting new players, including developers.
A decrease in the key rate will make the construction of data centers cheaper, which may lead to an increase in the number of facilities. In regions such as Yekaterinburg and Tver, new data centers are already appearing, for example, from "MegaFon". Konstantin Stepanov from RTK-DC notes that demand in the regions is not inferior to the capital, and clients are beginning to look at new sites due to the lack of capacity in Moscow and St. Petersburg. In comparison with the regions, where the cost of services is 20–30% lower, the capital's data centers remain preferable due to their proximity to large clients, but regional centers may become an alternative with further price increases.
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