# Johor data centre growth shifts focus to site readiness

- **Source:** Real Estate Asia
- **Published:** 2026-10-01T07:39:27.000Z
- **Author:** shiena@charltonmediamail.com
- **Original:** https://realestateasia.com/videos/johor-data-centre-growth-shifts-focus-site-readiness
- **Topics:** Commercial & Industrial, Regional Markets

## Featured rationale

AI and cloud demand is intensifying competition for construction-ready sites with scalable utilities, potentially supporting land demand while favouring locations offering immediate power, water and fibre.

## AI summary

Johor added more than 600MW of data-centre capacity over the past year, with close to 3,000MW expected to be completed by 2030.

## Original article

Developers are prioritising scalable power, water, fibre and construction-ready land as AI and cloud demand drives another wave of capacity across Johor.

Johor’s data centre expansion is putting greater emphasis on development-ready sites as operators seek infrastructure that can accommodate rapid growth in AI and cloud demand.

Pritesh Swamy, Head of Research & Consulting for the Data Centre Group in Asia Pacific at Cushman & Wakefield, said Johor has evolved from a spillover location for Singapore into a major data centre hub serving Southeast Asia.

Developers evaluating sites are prioritising power that is immediately available and can scale over the next three to five years. Water availability, fibre connectivity and development approvals are also important, alongside whether surrounding areas can accommodate data centre development without disrupting neighbouring communities.

“Land parcels that are ready with approval and can start construction are very favoured,” Swamy said.

Johor also retains a significant construction cost advantage over Singapore. Swamy estimated total construction costs can be 20%–30% lower, although he said lower costs were not the main reason Johor emerged as a data centre hub.

Available power, utilities and scalability were more important to its initial growth, and Swamy does not expect the construction cost gap with Singapore to narrow significantly given differences in land and development costs.

Demand is now being driven by AI training and inference alongside continued cloud growth. Cloud service providers, AI companies and neocloud operators hosting graphics processing units for large language models are amongst the key sources of demand.

Johor added more than 600MW of new capacity over the past 12 months, and Swamy expects that momentum to continue.

Cushman & Wakefield expects close to 3,000MW to be completed by 2030. Another 6,000MW is in longer-term development stages and could come online beyond 2030, although its timeline remains uncertain.

## Chinese translation

> Translation model: grok_cli

### 柔佛数据中心扩张将焦点转向场地就绪度

随着人工智能与云计算需求推动柔佛新一轮运力扩张，发展商正优先考虑可扩展电力、水源、光纤及可立即开工的土地。

柔佛数据中心扩张正更加强调开发就绪的场地，因为运营商寻求能够承接人工智能与云计算需求快速增长的基础设施。

戴德梁行亚太区数据中心集团研究与咨询主管Pritesh Swamy表示，柔佛已从新加坡的溢出选址，演变为服务东南亚的主要数据中心枢纽。

评估场地的发展商优先考虑可立即使用、并能在未来三至五年扩展的电力。水源供应、光纤连接和开发批文同样重要，此外还包括周边地区能否在不干扰邻近社区的情况下容纳数据中心开发。

Swamy表示：“已获批、可立即开工的地块非常受青睐。”

柔佛相对新加坡仍保持显著的建设成本优势。Swamy估计总建设成本可低20%至30%，但他表示，成本较低并非柔佛成为数据中心枢纽的主要原因。

可用电力、公用设施和可扩展性对其初期增长更为重要，而鉴于土地与开发成本差异，Swamy预计柔佛与新加坡的建设成本差距不会显著收窄。

当前需求正由人工智能训练与推理，以及持续的云计算增长所驱动。云服务提供商、人工智能公司，以及为大型语言模型托管图形处理器的新云（neocloud）运营商，均属主要需求来源。

过去12个月，柔佛新增逾600兆瓦运力，Swamy预计这一势头将持续。

戴德梁行预计，到2030年将有接近3000兆瓦竣工。另有6000兆瓦处于更长期开发阶段，可能在2030年后投运，但其时间表仍不确定。