Growing Strong

Mr. Kumar Ramesh.

Kumar Ramesh of Frost & Sullivan’s environment and building technologies practice looks at the future pipeline of building work in the region, and the implications for FM service providers.

Managing a facility always forms the largest proportion of the lifecycle cost of a building. Building owners have begun to realise the importance of monitoring the overall lifecycle cost of a facility.

This has led to improved awareness and increased prominence for facility management services, right from the conception, or design phase, of a building project.

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The global slowdown and the resultant strain faced by the construction sector have decelerated the pace of projects. But looking at the multi-billion dollar construction projects lined up, the high market potential for facilities management services in the Middle East is quite evident.

Improved standards of living and the huge influx posed by the expatriate population are constantly enhancing the importance of quality buildings, maintaining them and reducing operational costs.

With the arrival of multinational corporations in the region, the need to adopt international standards is evident in society as a whole. The market for outsourced facilities management was no different and has been growing at an exponential pace over the last few years.

This has mainly been fuelled by the need of customers to concentrate on their core business activities and to outsource other ancillary maintenance services.

However, there was a downward revision of market revenues influenced by the after-effects of the economic crisis in a few regions in the Gulf. But most end users were fully aware of the monetary benefits of involving a professional facility management company, and hence the facilities management market managed to overcome the tough times.

The facilities management market in the GCC is driven mainly by the plethora of construction activity taking place.

And the demand for facilities management is expected to increase spectacularly over the next few years. Most of the demand for facilities management services is expected from the new buildings that would border the skylines of the big cities in the Gulf region.

However, existing buildings that are aging and require maintenance and expert care are expected to contribute significantly to the growth of this market. Facilities in the Middle East will require expert maintenance, mainly due to the harsh weather conditions that prevail throughout the year.

To improve the living and working conditions of a building during these extreme weather conditions, there should be extensive maintenance of facilities.