Marwan Raad, Operations Manager – Property & Development, ENGIE Solutions, explores why the way a property performs after handover is becoming as important as how it was originally designed; with smarter facilities management helping owners control costs, improve sustainability and protect long-term asset value.
For a long time, facilities management was seen as a support function that building owners rarely discussed unless something went wrong. As long as HVAC were repaired, floors were cleaned, contracts were renewed and buildings operated as expected, few people paid much attention to what happened behind the scenes.
Today, owners, developers and asset managers expect facilities teams to do more than maintain buildings and meet compliance requirements. They increasingly expect them to improve asset performance, support sustainability objectives, enhance occupier satisfaction, manage long-term operating costs and help properties remain competitive. As a result, how well a building is managed has become a key factor not only in day-to-day operations, but also in long-term asset value and investment performance.
Several factors are changing what owners expect from their buildings. Rising energy costs are having a greater impact on operating budgets, while regulators and green building standards require stronger sustainability performance. At the same time, tenants and residents expect comfortable, reliable spaces and faster responses when issues arise.
These priorities apply to shopping malls, office towers and residential communities alike that are particularly important in the Middle East. This is because cooling is one of the highest contributing sources of building energy use, and equipment must perform reliably through long periods of extreme environmental conditions. Rapid urban development is also bringing newer, more efficient properties into the market, raising expectations for existing buildings.
For owners, poorly managed buildings can lead to higher utility bills, unreliable equipment, dissatisfied occupants and declining competitiveness. In residential communities, these costs are even more visible because higher energy use and maintenance costs can ultimately affect the service charges residents pay. In commercial properties, they can directly influence tenant retention, operating margins and overall asset attractiveness.
Most buildings are designed to perform efficiently, but keeping them that way once they are occupied is more difficult. Equipment ages, usage patterns change and energy consumption can increase over time. Without a clear view of asset performance, maintenance teams may only identify problems after they begin affecting operations.
Digital monitoring and building management systems are helping to change this by showing how equipment is performing and identifying early signs of deterioration. This allows teams to address potential problems before they become failures. But data on its own is only useful when experienced teams can interpret it, understand the cause of a problem and decide what action to take.
Industry experience shows that predictive maintenance and data-driven operational management can typically reduce energy use by between 5% and 15%, while also reducing emergency callouts and unplanned maintenance interventions. At a sustainable city in Abu Dhabi, for example, better operational management contributed to a 32% reduction in electricity and chilled water consumption over five years. The lesson here is that technology can identify a problem, but expertise determines how it is resolved.
Another example of a tower in Downtown, Dubai, where the value of this approach can be seen at Standard Chartered Tower in Dubai, an 18-storey Grade A office building occupied by Grade-A tenants, where the focus is primarily on tenant’s comfort and having state-of-the-art facilities, hence rather than reviewing energy performance periodically, the building is monitored continuously. It has maintained a low delta-T cooling profile continuously for six years and achieved year-on-year energy savings since 2015. A retrofit of 10,000 light fittings has also been completed, while around 2,000 assets are monitored against service and performance targets.
These results show that better building performance rarely comes from one major intervention, but from continuous monitoring, informed decisions and regular improvements. Over time, these incremental gains can have meaningful impact on operating costs, sustainability outcomes and the long-term value of an asset.
The same thinking applies to sustainability. A building may be designed to high environmental standards, but maintaining that performance after people move in depends largely on how it is operated. Cooling, lighting and water systems all need to be managed carefully if the building is to deliver the efficiency expected from its original design.
This makes sustainability an everyday facilities management responsibility. Energy audits, better HVAC scheduling, regular equipment maintenance and digital monitoring help identify where energy is being wasted and where improvements can be made. At DMCC Uptown Tower, a 340-meter LEED Gold-certified mixed-use development in Dubai, ENGIE Solutions committed to reducing energy consumption by 10% while supporting LEED Gold Operations certification. The approach includes energy audits, occupancy-based HVAC optimization and automated controls to reduce unnecessary energy use.
While commercial and residential properties serve different users, they increasingly face similar operating challenges. Both require reliable maintenance, efficient energy use, comfortable spaces and clear responsibility for performance. Integrated facilities management helps bring these requirements together instead of having different contractors working separately with limited coordination.
ENGIE Solutions also manages integrated services for Huawei sites in Abu Dhabi and Dubai covering approximately 181,000 square feet, including offices, villas, a store, industrial kitchens and IT server rooms. Hard, soft and specialised services are managed under one framework, supported by Smart O&M for energy management and digital monitoring. The model demonstrates how integrated service delivery can support operational continuity, workplace comfort, energy efficiency and a consistently high-quality occupier experience across a diverse portfolio of assets.
These examples point to a wider change in real estate, where how a building is managed over time determines how efficiently it operates, how well it manages costs and the experience it provides for occupants.
In a more demanding and competitive market, operational performance is becoming an important contributor to asset value alongside location, design and tenant mix. Smart facilities management is therefore becoming a strategic tool through which owners can protect asset value, strengthen sustainability performance and maintain the long-term competitiveness of their properties.
Source: REM Times
