Saudi Gazette report

RIYADH — Saudi Arabia intends to introduce the first legislation for facility management in the real estate sector during the first quarter of 2024, according to Eng. Abdullah Al-Hammad, CEO of the Real Estate General Authority (REGA).

“The legislation aims to regulate and govern work in this activity as one of the legislations that increases its reliability and investment attractiveness,” he said while addressing the conference, organized by the Middle East Facility Management Association (MIFMA). The two-day MIFMA CONFEX 2023, under the slogan of “Facility management in the digital age — embracing a smart future” concluded in Riyadh on Monday.

Al-Hammad said that the real estate sector enjoys unlimited support from the government as it is one of the pillars of the national economy. “The state was keen to organize and develop the real estate sector, improve its supervision mechanisms, raise its efficiency, encourage investment in it, and enable it to increase its contribution to the gross domestic product (GDP). According to the statistical figures of the second quarter of 2023, the sector’s contribution to GDP reached 6.1 percent, while the contribution of real estate activities to non-oil sector reached 12.7 percent,” he said while noting that facility management is one of the activities covered by the Real Estate Brokerage Law that came into force about three months ago.

The REGA chief said that the Real Estate Brokerage Law is considered as one of the most prominent capabilities for developing real estate and its governance, digitizing its operations, and serving beneficiaries, so that it becomes a vital and attractive sector, and a catalyst for investment due to the presence of reliability and transparency in all real estate activities.

It is noteworthy that the conference witnessed the presentation by several experts and specialists in the facility management industry of their best practices and experiences in the digital age. They spoke about their use of modern technologies to make the sector smarter and to raise awareness about the importance of the facility management industry. The sustainability of the operational life of facilities and mega-projects has been a key component in Saudi Arabia’s national and digital transformation, towards achieving the goals of its Vision 2030.

A number of specialized workshops and sessions focusing on the latest trends and technologies in the facility management sector and data-based facility management and the sector’s journey towards achieving sustainability were held as part of the conference.