Property & facilities manager

What does a property & facilities manager do?

A property and facilities manager looks after the daily running of buildings.

That covers air-conditioning, lifts, electrical systems, cleaning, security contracts and repairs. The aim is a building that is safe, comfortable and works as planned.

You find the role with building owners, managing agents, hospitals, schools, offices, malls and industrial sites. It usually reports to a head of facilities, property or operations. Larger organisations place one manager at each site or over a cluster of sites.

You work with tenants or staff, engineers, service contractors, finance, procurement and the safety team. You also deal with the authorities when inspections or licences come up.

What the work involves

• Walk the site, check plant rooms and common areas, and follow up on faults.
• Review work orders and incident reports, then assign repairs to contractors.
• Meet service providers to check their performance against agreed targets.
• Collect quotations, compare them, and prepare tender or contract documents.
• Review Workplace Safety and Health (WSH) reports and investigate accidents and near misses.
• Report progress, costs and risks to management, and plan staff and contractor resources for upcoming work.

Pay in Singapore

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Skills a property & facilities manager needs

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Property & facilities manager job description

A building owner, managing agent or operator in Singapore is hiring a property and facilities manager to run one or more sites.

You will oversee building systems, service contractors, budgets and safety, and report to management. The role suits someone with hands-on building or engineering experience who can also handle people and contracts.

Responsibilities

• Plan and direct the operation and maintenance of buildings, grounds and shared areas.
• Oversee air-conditioning, electrical, plumbing, lift and fire protection systems through planned and reactive maintenance.
• Manage service contractors, including cleaning, security, landscaping and repair vendors, and assess how well they deliver.
• Prepare tender specifications, compare quotations and draft maintenance contracts and service level agreements.
• Prepare and track the annual operating budget and flag overspending early.
• Investigate accidents, near misses and incidents, and put corrective actions in place.
• Carry out the organisation's environmental and green building guidelines.
• Respond to faults and emergencies using set incident procedures.
• Write technical and progress reports for management.
• Coach facilities staff and make sure enough people and contractors are on hand to cover operations.

Requirements

• A diploma or degree in facilities management, building services, engineering, real estate or a related field is typical.
• Experience in building operations or maintenance is usually asked for, often 2 to 5 years for a manager role.
• Working knowledge of mechanical and electrical building systems and how they are maintained.
• Experience with a computerised facilities management system (CAFM) or building management system, plus good spreadsheet and reporting skills.
• Knowledge of WSH practices, and often safety course certificates.
• Clear written and spoken English for dealing with tenants, contractors and senior management.

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Property & facilities manager career path

Most people start in a facilities executive or engineer role, then move up to run a site, several sites and finally a whole facilities function.

How fast you move depends on the size and type of buildings you handle.

1. Facilities executive

   Entry

   You support daily operations, log faults, follow up on work orders and help check contractor work.

2. Facilities manager / facilities engineer

   Mid · SkillsFuture title

   You run a site or a set of systems, manage contractors, track budgets and review safety and compliance reports.

3. Senior facilities manager

   Senior · SkillsFuture title

   You take charge of larger or more complex buildings, lead tenders and contracts, and guide improvement projects.

4. Cluster or assistant director, facilities

   Lead

   You oversee several sites, set maintenance standards and manage a team of site managers.

5. Head of facilities management

   Head

   You own the facilities strategy, budget and vendor approach for the whole organisation or portfolio.

Steps marked "SkillsFuture title" follow the career pathway in the SkillsFuture Skills Framework. The others are titles commonly used in Singapore.

Related jobs and their pay

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Property & facilities manager interview questions

We wrote these questions from the skills this job needs. They are not an official question bank.

1. Explain how a chilled water air-conditioning system works and what you check during routine maintenance.

   What a good answer covers

   • Names the main parts: chillers, cooling towers, pumps and air handling units.
   • Describes checks on temperatures, pressures, vibration and water treatment.
   • Links checks to a planned maintenance schedule.
   • Mentions monitoring energy use to spot a drop in performance.

2. How do you build a preventive maintenance plan for a new building?

   What a good answer covers

   • Starts with an asset register and the maker's service guidance.
   • Ranks assets by how much their failure would disrupt the building.
   • Includes inspections and servicing required by regulation.
   • Loads the schedule into a CAFM and tracks completion rates.

3. What goes into a maintenance contract and its service level agreement?

   What a good answer covers

   • Defines scope, site and asset coverage clearly.
   • Sets response and fix times by fault priority.
   • Lists performance measures, reporting and review meetings.
   • States penalties or remedies when targets are missed.

4. You receive five quotations for a cleaning contract. How do you compare them?

   What a good answer covers

   • Checks each quote covers the same scope and manpower.
   • Reviews the vendor's track record and references.
   • Looks at total cost over the contract, not only the lowest price.
   • Asks for clarification on gaps and records the decision reasons.

5. How would you prepare an annual facilities operating budget?

   What a good answer covers

   • Uses past spending, current contracts and utility trends as the base.
   • Separates recurring costs from one-off replacement or upgrade work.
   • Adds a contingency for unplanned repairs.
   • Tracks variances monthly and explains them to management.

6. What data would you pull from a CAFM, and what would you do with it?

   What a good answer covers

   • Pulls work order volumes, response times and repeat faults.
   • Reviews cost and repair history by asset.
   • Finds assets that cost more to fix than to replace.
   • Turns the findings into a short report with recommended actions.

7. Walk me through how you investigate a near miss on site.

   What a good answer covers

   • Makes the area safe and collects facts and photos while they are fresh.
   • Speaks to those involved and any witnesses.
   • Finds the root cause instead of blaming an individual.
   • Sets corrective actions with owners and deadlines, then checks they are done.
   • Knows when an incident must be reported to the Ministry of Manpower (MOM).

8. How do you use a building management system, and what do you do when an alarm comes in?

   What a good answer covers

   • Explains what the system monitors, such as chillers, pumps and fire panel status.
   • Ranks alarms by risk to people and operations.
   • Sends the right technician or contractor and logs the response.
   • Reviews alarm trends to prevent repeats.

1. A lift stops working at 9am in a busy office tower and tenants are complaining. What do you do?

   What a good answer covers

   • Confirms first that no one is trapped and calls the lift contractor.
   • Tells tenants what is happening and gives an estimated time.
   • Arranges access for people who cannot use stairs.
   • Gets a cause from the contractor and records the fault.
   • Reviews with the contractor whether the maintenance schedule needs to change.

2. A contractor is cheaper than others but keeps missing response times. How do you handle it?

   What a good answer covers

   • Gathers the missed targets from the service records.
   • Meets the contractor and agrees a recovery plan with dates.
   • Applies the contract's remedies if there is no improvement.
   • Keeps a backup vendor option ready.

3. Management asks you to cut next year's maintenance spending by a tenth. What do you do?

   What a good answer covers

   • Reviews where the money goes and which costs are fixed by contract.
   • Finds savings such as combined contracts, energy savings and fewer repeat callouts.
   • Explains the risk of deferring work on critical systems.
   • Presents options with the cost and risk of each.

1. Tell me about a time you dealt with an unhappy tenant or staff member.

   What a good answer covers

   • Describes a real, specific complaint.
   • Shows that you listened and confirmed the facts first.
   • Explains the fix and how you kept the person informed.
   • Names what changed afterwards to prevent a repeat.

2. Describe a time you raised a safety concern when others wanted to carry on with the work.

   What a good answer covers

   • Gives the situation and the risk clearly.
   • Shows that you stopped or paused the work and told the right people.
   • Explains how you handled the pressure on time and cost.
   • Describes the outcome and any change in practice.

1. Which Singapore rules and authorities affect the buildings you manage, and how do you stay compliant?

   What a good answer covers

   • Mentions workplace safety duties under the WSH framework.
   • Refers to fire safety requirements from the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF).
   • Refers to building and lift inspection requirements and the Building and Construction Authority (BCA).
   • Keeps a compliance calendar for inspections and certificates.
   • Says where checks are needed when rules change.

2. Your building has CCTV and a visitor registration system. How do you handle the personal data under the Personal Data Protection Act (PDPA)?

   What a good answer covers

   • Gives notice, such as signs, of why footage and visitor details are collected.
   • Limits who can view footage and records.
   • Sets how long data is kept and how it is deleted.
   • Makes sure security and system vendors also protect the data.
   • Knows who handles access requests or data incidents.

Common questions about a property & facilities manager job

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