The need to ensure regulatory compliance and the drive to extend asset life continue to support growth of the facilities management (FM) market in Australia. Stable demand from certain end-use sectors will underpin FM revenue growth. Recovery in the mining sector and sustained growth in healthcare services point to positive FM growth. However, skilled labour shortages, inadequate process frameworks and practices, and pricing pressure continue to restrain FM market revenue growth in Australia.

The outsourcing outlook is likely to depend on the ability of a service model to deliver value-for-money solutions for organisations, especially in public-private partnerships, as FM customers adopt a stricter asset life cycle cost approach in evaluating service value. Customers today are moving away from engaging multiple providers towards consolidated, integrated, single-provider FM procurement. With the anticipated prolonged shortage of skilled labour, large-scale contracts can ensure that the workforce quality and quantity are monitored at a single source.

Despite the dominance of large FM service providers, the market in Australia remains fragmented. Although the market shares of several prominent industry participants are unlikely to change drastically, there will be some degree of consolidation as acquisitions are made.

Amidst growing integration in the FM industry, pricing and self-delivery have emerged as the key competitive factors. Pricing, in particular, is likely to be a crucial determinant as customers consider their assets’ total cost of ownership. It is becoming increasingly necessary for FM providers to be able to self-deliver a variety of facilities management services, if not all. The need for compliance, standardisation, and predictability of services is driving this trend.

The emergence of smart city projects is set to propel the market, as facility owners seek capabilities beyond those available in-house. Moreover, workplace transformation will require workplace management flexibility and solutions that FM providers can offer. Increasingly connected built environments and digital technology solutions will present significant opportunities for FM providers to develop adjacencies and new services that can drive revenue growth as well as ensure competitive differentiation.

Australia presents significant opportunities for improvements in overall sustainability and, in particular, energy efficiency of the built environment, suggesting long-term prospects for FM providers with expertise in energy efficiency technologies and advisory services.

Market estimates, growth estimates, and segmentation are based on existing data, secondary research, and information gathered from interviews in 2019. The base year for this research service is 2018. The study period is from 2016 to 2025. Apart from outlining the key drivers and restraints, the study provides forecasts for the Australian FM market and discusses segmentation by in-house versus outsourced FM expenditure, integrated FM versus other FM (single and bundled) services, hard versus soft FM, as well as FM market growth and trends by major end-use sectors. It also provides insights into the digital technology tools being leveraged on order to improve FM delivery outcomes. Finally, it sheds light on the market shares of key competitors and the competitive factors impacting competitive advantage.