How much crew accommodation does a data centre construction project need?

What does one data centre build actually need?

The official numbers are bigger than most bookers expect. Merlin's data centre campus near Zaragoza was approved in July 2026 with an estimated 1,109 direct jobs during construction. QTS's campus at Calatorao, where works started at the end of September, expects 1,200 direct construction jobs in its first phase alone. Nebius's 310 MW campus in Lappeenranta, Finland, expects up to 700 construction jobs. A smaller 9.6 MW European build completed this summer still peaked at 560 people on site.

Those are headcounts, not bed counts. Developers increasingly commit to hiring locally: QTS has committed to 50% local employment from within 70 km of the Calatorao site. That still leaves the other half of the workforce, often the specialist trades, travelling in and needing somewhere to sleep.

When does the peak hit?

Not at the start. Groundworks and the building shell need relatively small crews. The densest phase is the mechanical, electrical and plumbing (MEP) fit-out, when electricians, pipefitters, HVAC installers and commissioning teams all stack onto the same site. Industry programme guides put that fit-out at roughly 8 to 14 months on a hyperscale build, followed by a commissioning tail.

Those are also the hardest people to find. Turner & Townsend's Global Construction Market Intelligence 2026 found data centres to be the most constrained sector for contractor capacity, with over 70% of markets reporting tightening or overstretched capacity and MEP shortages in 87% of markets. Its European section notes that the shortage is pulling skilled workers across the continent. In practice that means MEP crews are the ones most likely to be travelling, and the ones a booker has to house.

Why is the region's peak the number that matters?

Because data centres cluster. They follow grid capacity, so several campuses land in the same corridor and their fit-outs overlap. In Aragon, El Periódico de Aragón added up the promoters' own figures in July 2026: about 39,700 construction workers across the planned projects. Two months later the mayor of Calatorao was publicly asking the regional government for public housing to cope with the workforce coming to his town.

Finland shows the same pattern. Google announced in September 2026 at least EUR 13 billion for campuses in Muhos, Vaala and Kajaani plus an expansion in Hamina, and estimates around 16,000 of the jobs it supports in 2027 and 2028 will be in construction. The mayor of Muhos, a municipality of around 8,800 people, told AFP on 4 October that he expects "thousands of workers" during construction. In Lappeenranta, a local rental company described a request for homes for 25 people with five days' notice when the Nebius works began, and expects overflow into neighbouring Imatra when the next phase starts.

The EU wants more of this, not less. The Commission's proposed Cloud and AI Development Act aims to triple EU data centre capacity within five to seven years. So your crew is not competing with tourists for beds. It is competing with the next campus down the road, which is likely to hit its MEP peak in the same months.

How many separate units is that?

More than headcount suggests. Across 64 recent bookings in our own data where party size was recorded, the median party was 4 people [Bonjour Residences OS, October 2026]. At that ratio, 600 travelling workers means roughly 150 separate units, each with its own address, check-in and contract. That is what turns a staffing number into a sourcing problem.

What should bookers do differently?

• Ask for the labour histogram, not the average. Get the month by month headcount from the main contractor and the MEP subcontractors, and size accommodation to the fit-out peak.
• Split local and travelling crews. Local hiring commitments reduce beds, but only for the trades that are genuinely available locally. Assume specialists travel.
• Map the other projects in your radius. Environmental and planning approvals for large campuses usually publish construction job estimates. Add up the ones within commuting distance and note when each fit-out starts.
• Source in units, not beds. Two and three bedroom homes shared by a crew are what contractors in Lappeenranta used first. Decide room sharing rules before you search, not after.
• Set the commute radius early. Agree a maximum travel time and how crews will get to site, so neighbouring towns are in the search from day one rather than as overflow. We explain why supply is often thin right next to these sites in Why is there no contractor accommodation near our project site?
• Lock the core block before the fit-out starts. Secure the beds you will need for the whole MEP phase on mid-term terms with extension options, and keep only the peak top-up flexible.

The shift is in the starting point. A data centre build used to be sized as one project's crew in one town. In 2026 the useful question is how many people every project in that corridor will need housed in the same months, and how much of that supply you have already secured.