Gulf Cooperation Council Facility Management (FM) Growth Opportunities

Gulf Cooperation Council Facility Management (FM) Growth Opportunities

Facility Management (FM) includes outsourced services associated with running or maintaining a facility, such as janitorial, engineering, security, environmental, landscaping, and other related services. In this study, Frost & Sullivan segments FM into 3 main service categories, namely hard
FM services, soft FM services, and additional services. The geographical scope of the study includes the members of the Gulf Cooperation Council, namely Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). End users of FM covered in this study include commercial, institutional, public and infrastructure, industrial, and others. Residential end users are excluded from this study.

In 2020 FM revenue in the GCC declined by a significant 9.0% due to the pandemic. Cancellations and postponements of building construction and inauguration of new buildings drastically reduced the revenue from new FM contracts. Building construction projects in the GCC largely resumed in 2021 in the midst of new COVID-19 infections globally and in the region. The lukewarm economic conditions led to moderate 7.8% growth in the FM market in 2021. By 2027, FM revenue is expected to grow to nearly $29.95 billion.

Soft services were the largest service type in the GCC in 2021, and are expected to remain the largest segment in 2022 and 2023. Hard services are expected to gain importance in the GCC FM market. They will overtake soft services as the largest FM service type in 2024 and will continue their dominance till 2027. Hard services are expected to record the highest CAGR of 16.0% compared to other FM service types. Additional services are the smallest service type by revenue, but make up for an important segment, which is expected to record double-digit CAGR from 2021 to 2027.

The top-3 end users are commercial, institutional, and industrial, cumulatively accounting for 86.2% share of FM revenue in 2021. The fastest-growing end-user segment is industrial, which is likely to grow at a CAGR of 14.9% from 2021 to 2027. This is attributed to the expansion of manufacturing activities and continuation of oil and gas downstream business in the region. Nonetheless, the commercial sector will remain the largest end user throughout the forecast period. Factors for FM adoption in commercial facilities, including offices and shopping malls, are green building certifications and corporate sustainability initiatives.

An estimated 8.4% of the revenue from the outsourced FM segment was attributed to IFM contracts in 2021. The penetration rate of IFM in GCC is comparatively lower than the global average of about 13.0%. Key growth opportunities in the GCC FM market include leverage of advanced technologies for service advancement, resource management for first-mover advantage, sustainability solutions for competitive differentiation, and building occupant experience for FM client retention.