Bulgaria Facility Management Market - Growth, Trends, COVID-19 Impact, and Forecasts (2022 - 2027)

The Bulgaria Facility Management Market is anticipated to record a CAGR of 3.4% over the forecast period (2022 - 2027). The growing emphasis on outsourcing non-core operations and growth in the real estate sector is expected to drive the Bulgaria market for facility management services. Along with this, the government regulation on safety measures and environmental concerns to follow green practices is expected to drive the market.

Key Highlights

• Bulgaria has prominence in outsourced markets for facility management services in terms of development and sophistication. The region's facility management industry operates with integrated contracts from significant vendors such as LPM Jsc, First facility, etc., across various cities (such as Sofia, Burgas). Small local players focus on single contracts and single-service solutions. However, given the dynamics occurring across the region, there are increasing opportunities to leverage facility management and corporate real estate in new ways.
• Over the past years, several service vendors operating in the region, such as Facility Optimum Bulgaria and Okin Facility Bg EOOD, have been focused on expanding their presence to leverage the increasing demand for facility management, especially with the recent trend favoring the outsourcing of non-core operations. Further, Bulgaria has been witnessing increased opportunities to leverage facility management and corporate real estate in innovative ways, given the dynamics across the country.
• Facility Management in Bulgaria develops quickly. The proof is that the number of FM companies has increased three times during the last years, and almost half of them are Bulgarian companies. This business will increase by approximately 20% yearly and step by step approach the levels of the old European countries. In terms of the end-user demand, the public sector's contribution to Bulgaria's facility management market is primarily driven by the government's constrained budgets that lead to the continuous outsourcing of essential facility management services.
• Considering the market for Bulgaria, facility management has been subjected to moderate growth due to the rise in demand for people with improved requirements. This scenario is projected to bolster the development of the market during the forecast period. The ongoing pandemic has resulted in the steady market growth in the region. However, the pandemic has resulted in limited production, leading to a sharp decline in business inputs. ​
• The outbreak of COVID-19 has had a mixed business impact on facilities management firms. The restrictions on the movement of people resulted in a decline in project work and a decreased level of activity across many customer sites. Significant players in the market, such as GI Enterprise Ltd., KEY Facilities Management, and others, were adversely affected due to the pandemic lockdown.

Key Market Trends

Maintenance of Building Installations Segment to hold significant share in the market

• The market for facility management is in the growing phase in Bulgaria country. Most of the facility management activities in the country are centered on real estate activities. One of the key issues related to the development of FM in the country is how the demand and supply of facility services on the neck market are changing compared to the European and global.
• Per the survey conducted by Dragomir Stefanov, the five most sought-after FM services in Bulgaria continue to be the maintenance of building installations, cleaning, building maintenance, security, and property management. Although traditional, these services are at the core of the understanding of FM.
• In practice, all FM companies in the country cover the three most sought-after services (building maintenance, cleaning, and maintenance of building installations), and four out of five provide security and property management. More than half of the existing FM companies offer spatial planning, reception, and transport.
• The average area of the buildings maintained by the FM companies is very different, depending on the purpose of the sites. The largest are office buildings with an average area of over 25,600 square meters, followed by commercial buildings (nearly 17,000 square meters) and warehouses (over 3,500 square meters).

Increase in demand for IT support in Commercial is Expected to Gain the Market Growth

• There will be an increasing demand for software, financial, HR, and facility management marketing services in order to better meet the needs and expectations of users. For now, supply is ahead of demand in a variety of FM-related services in the country.
• It is noteworthy that every tenth of respondents indicated that the service "information technology support" is also in demand, and 6.7% include "spatial planning". Until a few years ago, these services did not fall within the scope of FM, but today they have serious potential for facility management growth trends in IT support facilities.
• The service "IT support", is positioned further back in the ranking of activities offered by companies in the industry in relation to demand. This fact concludes that this is a relatively new service with potential for implementation and attracting staff with appropriate qualifications and skills from FM companies is one of the current challenges for the market.
• Key Facilities Management Bulgaria CEO in the recent interviews mentioned that the company continues to sustain a superior service position in the Bulgarian market, one which delivers innovative “head of the pack” business solutions characterised by strong cultural understanding, collaboration, and practical know-how of new Facility Management technologies and approaches, signifying the importance of facility management.
• As per ESRI Bulgaria, Facility management experts increasingly include GIS in the IT tools, by which they manage buildings and facilities. The reason is hidden in the fact that spatial location of the objects is very important for the facility management.
• Lack of sufficiently trained specialists with appropriate education, poor legislative framework of the service and weak state regulation, lack of standards for staff training in the field of FM, unfair competition, incorrectness on the part of the contracting authorities and frequent change of their expectations towards the quality and content of the services received are restraints to the growth of IT support facility management.

Competitive Landscape

The Bulgaria Facility Management Market is consolidated with the presence of limited firms of different sizes. The market is anticipated to grow with increased investments and the emergence of new companies in the market.

• October 2021 - SAP acquired the newly built Class A office building Park Lane Office Center in Sofia for EUR 49 million. The purchase price is equivalent to a 7.5% asset yield. This is the largest investment deal in the Bulgarian office property market so far in 2021
• February 2022 - Integrated packaging solutions provider Multivac has announced the expansion of the production facility in Bozhurishte, Bulgaria. With an area covering up to 5,000m2, the expansion project will include the construction of new production and assembly facilities and modern offices.

Additional Benefits:

• The market estimate (ME) sheet in Excel format
• 3 months of analyst support

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