Underwriting powered land: five tests of readiness

Across three data centre platforms built from inception to institutional scale, the most expensive underwriting errors I have seen share a cause: power that was described, rather than confirmed. In a market where grid queues in the traditional hubs average seven to ten years, according to the International Energy Agency, the distinction is worth more than any other line in the model.

We therefore apply five tests before any facility enters the Qore platform.

1. Capacity: confirmed, dated and ramped

The governing document is the system operator's confirmation. We require it in writing from the relevant transmission or distribution system operator, with a connection date and a ramp: initial capacity at energisation and the schedule for the remainder. A connection at transmission level, adjacent to an existing extra-high-voltage substation, avoids distribution-grid queues and preserves expansion capacity.

The process itself is changing. Since April 2026, Germany's four TSOs allocate large-consumer capacity by maturity, scoring site control and permitting (30%), technical maturity (30%), financial and organisational capability (30%) and shared-connection benefits (10%). Readiness is now the route to capacity, not merely a description of it.

2. Zoning: permitted today

We do not underwrite rezonings. Data centre use must be permitted under current zoning, or the planning process must be in its final stage. In practice this favours existing industrial land, brownfield locations and land adjacent to energy infrastructure over larger greenfield positions that look attractive on paper.

3. Control: binding and staged

Land must be owned, under binding agreement or held through a joint venture. We structure acquisitions so that payments are staged to confirmed power milestones, with deferred tranches that fall away if capacity is not delivered. The price of land should follow the certainty of its power.

4. Cost: assessed and capped

Construction contributions, substation works and easements vary widely and are frequently underestimated. We assess them at underwriting and cap them contractually wherever possible, so that they are known before construction rather than discovered during it.

5. Plan: what the land can carry, and when

Finally, a master plan, test fit and permitting route that establish the facility's capacity, phasing, density, cooling strategy and space for on-site generation and storage, together with an environmental pathway the authority recognises.

Readiness is the product

For a hyperscaler or frontier AI lab, a ready facility is not land; it is time, the difference between capacity in 2028 and capacity in 2033. That is why the platform concentrates its effort before construction: on grid, permitting, design and contracts, and on partnerships with landowners and power producers who already hold part of the answer. It is also why every one of our near-term facilities entered the platform with its power confirmed.

Christof Hämmerli

Co-Founder and Chief Investment Officer, Qore Infrastructure Partners. Profile