Carrier neutral data center space in Europe's top five markets has fallen to a historic low of 22.8%, according to real estate firm CB Richard Ellis.

London, Paris, Frankfurt, Amsterdam and Madrid were all seeing demand outstrip supply in the last quarter of 2010 according to CB Richard Ellis head of technology practice Andrew Jay.

"[Last year] saw the lowest annual increase in market supply since the economic downturn began," Jap said.

European developers are expected to take advantage of these figures throughout 2011 by expanding their presence in these key markets, led by London which makes up 49% of the overall take-up.

Colocation provider Interxion, which has 28 data centers in 11 European countries and a total floor space of 55,800 sq m, has recently been expanding its footprint across the continent.

Interxion UK managing director Greg McCulloch said it is seeing a lot of demand from the major European markets with a number of companies entering the continent from the US and other locations abroad.

He said the market has been unable to build data centers fast enough to keep up with current demand.

"We have historically always had a trend of demand outstripping supply, followed by supply outstripping demand, it just depends on the market," McCulloch said.

"Previously we had so much capital in the market place, then the global recession came in. A lot of the older investment has now filled up and we are now at a stage where all sites developed now are nearing capacity. It takes much longer to develop a new site."

McCulloch said in Europe the time to build is getting longer, not only due to a growing list of data center demands but increasing regulation imposed on the industry.

"Before you just looked at where the power, connectivity and so on is, but now this takes longer. You have to be close to your customers, and then you have a number of green initiatives coming into place, and new regulations around carbon use ÔÇô there is a lot more to developing a site than there was a few years ago."