Data centres
Furnished apartments and houses near hyperscale campuses across Europe, arranged for teams of 20 to 200 on one contract and one invoice.
Four numbers that shape this page. Bonjour Residences works across 27 European markets plus project work in the United States, sources from 3,000+ vetted property partners, and runs corporate contracts on 30-day terms with no card upfront. The fourth number is not ours: 175 km is the average distance of a planned European hyperscale campus from a major hub city for projects scheduled 2026–2028, against 46 km for those delivered 2022–2025 (JLL).
The short version
The beds are not where the campus is. New European capacity is being built around power, not around cities: campuses planned for 2026–2028 sit an average 175 km from a major hub city, against 46 km for those delivered 2022–2025, and 39% of the 2026–2028 pipeline is greenfield, up from 8% of what was delivered in the previous three years. Hotel stock, serviced apartments and letting agencies are all distributed for the old map. Your site is on the new one.
The volumes are not small and they do not arrive gently. 2.6 GW was under construction across EMEA at the end of H1 2025, and a single campus phase can put 800 to 1,500-plus workers on site at peak. When your MEP package mobilises into a town of a few thousand people, you are not competing with tourists for rooms. You are competing with the civils contractor, the switchgear installer and the commissioning provider, all of whom need the same beds in the same eight-week window.
Bonjour Residences is an independent agency. We do not own units. We source them from a vetted partner network — including direct from local owners who never list online — and we stand behind the booking, the invoice and the support for the length of the stay. Furnished, self-catering apartments and houses with a kitchen, laundry and parking, at all-inclusive rates that cover utilities, Wi-Fi, local taxes and support.
The demand curve
Most accommodation planning is done at the wrong moment. A greenfield data centre typically runs 18–30 months to delivery, or 24–36 months for a fully redundant Tier III/IV facility, and campus programmes "can stay in construction and expansion for over a decade". Bed demand tracks the trades, not the calendar.
Expressed as a share of peak workforce, the shape is consistent (Cortex Construct):
| Phase | Months | Share of peak workforce |
|---|---|---|
| Site work and foundations | 1–3 | 10–20% |
| Structural and building envelope | 4–8 | 30–50% |
| MEP rough-in | 8–16 | 80–100% |
| MEP trim and commissioning | 16–22 | 60–80%, then tapering |
| Final commissioning and punch | final months | 20–40% |
Swipe the table sideways to see every column.
MEP rough-in is where the beds are needed, and it is described as "the densest, riskiest stretch of the build… Mechanical, electrical, and plumbing trades work on top of each other". Electricians alone account for 30–40% of total labour hours. Overall the sector runs at 0.7 to 2.0 construction workers per MW, so a 100 MW campus phase is a four-figure mobilisation on its own. Then commissioning stretches the tail. L2 to L4 typically takes 3–6 months per building phase, and integrated systems testing at L5 is 2–4 weeks of scripted testing, preceded by weeks of rehearsal and followed by seasonal testing through the first year — a schedule Uptime Institute puts at up to 20 working days or longer for a rigorous L5. Those are small, expensive, highly mobile teams whose dates move with the energisation date. They need one-bed flexibility late, not a block booked eighteen months out.
Live demand
Every figure below is as published. Where a peak construction headcount has not been published, the row says so rather than guessing.
| Project | Location | Developer | Scale | Peak construction workforce |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Microsoft Länsi-Uusimaa | Espoo, Kirkkonummi, Vihti, Finland | Microsoft | Multi-site, phase 2 from 2026 | as many as 7,500 |
| Pure DC SJK01 | Seinäjoki, Finland | Pure Data Centres Group | 110 MW IT phase 1, potential beyond 550 MW | over 1,500 in phase 1, upwards of 3,000 across the development |
| Start Campus SIN02 | Sines, Portugal | Start Campus | 180 MW IT across SIN01+SIN02, to 1.2 GW | around 1,500, peaks of up to 2,500 |
| Vantage Bridgend | Waterton, Bridgend, Wales | Vantage Data Centers | 10-building campus, two-year first build | 1,500 on-site during construction |
| Microsoft West Denmark | Varde and Esbjerg municipalities | Microsoft | New region, multi-site | up to 1,200–1,400 per site at peak |
| TikTok Kouvola | Kouvola, Finland | TikTok with HyperCo | €1 billion | more than a thousand at peak |
| Google Horndal | Horndal, Avesta, Sweden | 109-hectare site, target 2028 | "several thousand" at full swing | |
| Nebius / Polarnode | Pajarila, Lappeenranta, Finland | Nebius with Polarnode | up to 310 MW | up to 700 skilled construction jobs |
| Google Kronstorf | Kronstorf, Upper Austria | 70-hectare site | up to 700 over an 18-month build | |
| Data4 Escaudain | Escaudain, Hauts-de-France | Data4 | 700 MW, €5 billion | not published |
| Schwarz Digits Dummerstorf | Dummerstorf, near Rostock | Schwarz Group | 240 MW by 2033 | not published |
Swipe the table sideways to see every column.
We publish a project page for each of these. See all live projects.
Why it is hard
Look at what the host towns actually have. Avesta municipality, on the Google Horndal site: "Det bor idag 1 100 personer i samhället där det finns 770 bostäder. Det räcker inte om det blir ett sajtbygge" — 1,100 residents, 770 homes, and that is not enough if a site build happens. Against several thousand workers at peak.
In Lappeenranta, the mayor's first enquiry from the AI factory developer was that a hundred apartments were needed immediately, with hundreds of accommodation places wanted by autumn as main works started; the city's housing company estimates the build needs a few hundred apartments, and overspill is already being taken in Joutseno with Imatra expected at peak. A local letting agent describes the buying pattern exactly as contractors experience it: "a call could come on Friday that housing is needed for 25 people by next Wednesday".
In Sines, the market has already broken. The mayor warns that announced investment could bring at least 7,000 workers by 2030, with rents around €2,000 or more. Start Campus is building its own modular worker village from scratch, one room per person, phased from around 200 rooms to an expected maximum of 3,000, because "as rendas estão a 2 mil euros… não há oferta" — rents are at €2,000 because there is no supply.
And the crews are not local. The City of Seinäjoki states plainly that not all the required specialist skills are available locally or even in Finland, that both Finnish and foreign workers will be on site in different phases, and that hundreds of workers are needed for equipment installation alone. Across the sector, nearly two-thirds of operators report difficulty retaining staff, finding qualified candidates, or both. Scarce people, moved a long way, into towns with no spare beds — that is the whole problem in one line.
How we work
We plan the block around the phase curve, not the mobilisation email. That usually means a core of apartments held through the 80–100% months and a flexible tail released as trades demobilise. Headcount changes twice before mobilisation on most projects, so the flexibility sits in the block rather than in the contract.
Commissioning teams do not keep site hours. Load-bank runs, blackout tests and scripted failure scenarios happen overnight and at weekends, and an L5 event is 2–4 weeks of scripted testing with rehearsal either side. Self-catering matters more than breakfast service: a real kitchen, a washing machine, and a bed that is not being cleaned at 10am while a night-shift engineer is in it. Staggered check-ins are coordinated as standard.
Mobile MEP and commissioning specialists are routinely hired on packages that include accommodation, flights and a living allowance — one hyperscale role in Mons, Belgium was advertised at €100,000 plus a €1,200 net monthly living allowance, rotation, accommodation and travel. The company buys the bed, so the company sets the standard: single rooms where the contract requires them, shared apartments where it does not, and weekend releases where crews fly home on rotation.
On a campus 175 km from the nearest city, drive time is the specification. We work to a site postcode and a maximum commute, and we prioritise parking and secure vehicle space, because your crews arrive in vans with tools in them.
Process
Rates and how they compare per crew-week are on the pricing page.
Send the requirement. Site postcode, team size, dates, budget. A postcode and a headcount is enough to start.
Get tailored options. Usually inside a working day, sourced from partners in that market rather than pulled off a platform.
Confirm once. We handle booking coordination, contracts and staggered check-ins with every property owner.
We hold the line. One WhatsApp channel for your crew, one invoice for your finance team, for the length of the stay.
For finance and procurement
One consolidated VAT-compliant invoice covering every property and every country on the programme, in your local currency where we can. On a campus job that replaces a folder of individual bookings across three towns with a single line your quantity surveyor can code to the project.
Corporate contracts run on 30-day terms. No personal cards exposed, no individual receipts for your team to submit, and accommodation cost that lands in the same billing cycle as the labour it supports.
One onboarding, one set of compliance documents, one contact, instead of a new vendor for every town on the programme. Booking confirmations and invoices are issued per person and per property, so they can be attached to your own posted-worker or assignment files where your compliance team needs them.
Coverage
Our deepest coverage is data centre construction. A selection of live project pages:
Not on the list? These are the projects we publish; coverage runs to 27 European markets plus project work in the United States. Start at contractor accommodation or see every live project. We run the same model for semiconductor fab and tool-install teams, pharma commissioning and CQV teams and energy, nuclear and gigafactory crews.
Questions
Book against the phase curve rather than the start on site. MEP rough-in runs at 80–100% of peak workforce in months 8–16, so the largest block is needed roughly a year after groundbreaking. In small host towns the practical constraint is supply, not lead time — Lappeenranta's developer asked the city for hundreds of accommodation places by autumn as main works began.
Yes. We arrange bookings for teams of 1 to 200-plus as one coordinated block, sourced across a travel-to-site radius rather than a single building. On a campus site that usually means several towns, one contract and one invoice.
It usually does. We hold the flexibility in the block rather than in the contract, adding and releasing units as trades mobilise and demobilise, and coordinate staggered check-ins with each owner.
Yes, and they are a different requirement. L2–L4 commissioning typically runs 3–6 months per building phase with 2–4 weeks of scripted integrated systems testing at the end, on dates that move. Those teams are smaller, need single rooms more often, and need late flexibility.
No. Bonjour Residences is an independent agency. We source from a vetted partner network of 3,000+ property partners, including direct from local owners who do not list online, and we stand behind the booking, the invoice and the support.
Because the site is deliberately remote. Campuses planned for 2026–2028 average 175 km from a major hub city, against 46 km for those delivered 2022–2025, and 39% of the pipeline is greenfield. Host towns can be very small: Horndal has 1,100 residents and 770 homes.
One consolidated VAT-compliant invoice covering every property and country on the programme, in your local currency where possible, on 30-day corporate terms with no card upfront.
Site postcode, team size, dates, budget. That is enough for us to come back with options sourced in that market.
