Australia Facility Management Growth Opportunities

The Australian facilities management (FM) market registered disruption due to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, recording negative growth. It is forecast to remain negative in 2021. Frost & Sullivan expects the FM market to record stable development in 2022 as the economy recovers and fully recover by 2025 or 2026.

New infrastructure development, hygiene awareness that leads to more frequent cleaning and sanitization, and smart and sustainable building development are the main drivers for FM services in Australia. However, reduced facility operations and work from home (WFH) policies due to the pandemic, service commoditization, fierce price competition and margin pressure, and reliance on in-house FM service delivery due to lack of outsourcing culture restrain market development. WFH practices have also prompted commercial office occupiers to downsize their office footprint.

COVID-19 has made good hygiene practices a priority and increased the demand for hand sanitizers and surface cleaning services. It has also expanded access control technologies, automated sanitizing stations, people flow analysis, safety compliance checks, and staffed security for crowd control and social distancing enforcement. In terms of end-user vertical, more opportunities for FM service providers will likely come from healthcare facilities, from reactive maintenance to more strategic approaches in operations and maintenance.

Australia's outsourced FM rate is considerably high at more than 60% of the total FM market. However, the preference to maintain an in-house FM team remains prevalent. The market recorded integrated facility management (IFM) penetration of more than 20% of the outsourced FM market. This penetration rate is considered good in the FM market. Owners of large facilities aim for scalability and service consolidation because IFM contracts lead to long-term cost savings.

The study also provides analysis by engagement type, service type, and end-user verticals. It covers the 2018 to 2026 period, with 2020 as the base year. The study identifies four key growth opportunities for Australian FM market stakeholders: environmentally sustainable practices, analytics adoption, building performance optimization, and standards focus.

Author: Melvin Leong