Large sales of data centers rose again in 2025, as the sector set its third straight annual volume record.
Trades totaling $3.23 billion took place among such properties worth at least $25 million last year, up 6.3% from $3.04 billion in 2024, according to Green Street’s Sales Comps Database. The tally has climbed each year since 2022, as development in the white-hot sector has begun to translate into investment sales.
Eastdil Secured took the title of the sector’s top broker with $1.58 billion of advisory work, equal to a 49.8% market share. The brokerage didn’t receive league-table credit for any sales the previous year.
CBRE, the 2024 winner, easily captured second place with $1.12 billion of assignments, good for a 35.5% market share. Newmark was the only other brokerage with a material market share, snagging 10.2% of overall volume via a single $322 million sale. While JLL, Kidder Matthews and Cushman & Wakefield recorded sales as well, none accounted for more than 2.4% of brokered trades.
While the sales tally for data centers remains small compared with sectors such as office, multifamily and industrial, brokerages continue to staff up in the space as frenetic development is expected to yield larger marketing assignments in the coming years. Indeed, the number of trades of $100 million or more last year jumped to 11 from six in 2024.
Arguably, the biggest headwinds facing data-center sales come from mergers and acquisitions in the sector. Consider a BlackRock partnership’s planned $40 billion takeover of Aligned Data Centers, a single deal worth nearly triple the combined $15.55 billion of data-center sales that have taken place since Real Estate Alert began tracking the sector in 2018.
In the self-storage space, volume jumped 78.4% to $3.73 billion from $2.09 billion. That pushed the annual total for trades of at least $25 million to its highest since 2022, when $6.43 billion of sales took place.
CBRE took the top spot in the sector league table, representing sellers on $1.03 billion of trades for a 29.4% market share. That was up 379.6% from 2024, when the firm placed second. The jump was the largest among any of the eight brokerages that received sell-side credit.
Eastdil climbed to second place from third in 2024 with $754.0 million of activity equaling a 21.5% market share. That marked a 253.2% increase.
Cushman & Wakefield, the 2024 winner, fell to third, tallying $490.6 million of sales for a 14.0% market share. Its sales rose 46.3% year over year, but the increase didn’t overcome the larger percentage bumps from CBRE and Eastdil.
JLL landed in fourth place with $459.6 million of activity, good for a 13.1% market share. Newmark ($344.5 million of sales, 9.8% market share) and Marcus & Millichap ($323.8 million, 9.2%) rounded out the top six and were the only other brokerages with material market share.
Broker rankings are based on property transactions that closed in 2025 and that involved full or partial stakes valued at $25 million or more. When multiple brokers shared a listing, the dollar credit was divided evenly, but each broker was credited with one transaction. Only brokers for sellers were given credit. Portfolio transactions were included if the package price was at least $25 million.
