The Commonwealth of Australia represented by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (Commonwealth, DFAT, the Department) maintains a significant diplomatic presence in foreign nations through owned portfolio currently valued at AUD 3.35 billion and a substantial leased portfolio. This property portfolio includes embassies, high commissions, consulates, trade offices, residences and compounds for staff, and other associated properties. The Commonwealth’s overseas estate enables the delivery of the government’s foreign policy, trade, consular and international development priorities in support of Australia’s international strategic, security and economic interests. The current global contract is the third-generation outsourced model for property and facilities management arrangements. The global contract has been continuously improved since the management of the estate was first outsourced in 2001 to use best practice asset management principles and be better suited for the evolving diplomatic network.

The property portfolio owned by the Australian Government is managed and administered on behalf of DFAT by the Overseas Property and Services (OPO) Division. DFAT has a global outsourced contract for the provision of property and facilities management services to its owned overseas estate, with some services extended to the leased estate (refer Appendix 1). The contract is based on a fixed fee plus passthrough costs pricing model. The current contract is expiring in June 2027. The new contract provides an opportunity to consider changes to the current model to deliver benefits and better align to an expanding and more geographically dispersed portfolio. This includes consideration of the contract scope to leverage the capabilities of the property service provider market.

An overview of the overseas estate which fluctuates from time to time and currently includes:

• Owned Estate

i. 29 Chanceries

ii. 41 Head of Mission residences

iii. 10 Chancery compounds (including residential)

iv. 35 staff residences of various typologies (this includes whole apartment blocks or townhouses grouped as one e.g. within residential compounds often with recreational facilities as well as detached house properties)

• Leased Estate

i. 76 Chanceries

ii. 67 Head of Mission residences

iii. 854 staff residences

The above-owned and leased properties are located across many countries and geographical areas.

The current service provider delivers property and facilities management services for DFAT’s domestic and overseas estates. In June 2025, DFAT’s domestic property estate will transition to the Whole of Australian Government (WoAG) Property Services arrangements and will not form part of the new Global contract. This RFI relates solely to property and facilities management services for overseas properties. Property and facilities management services for domestic properties is out of scope.

Objectives

DFAT is undertaking this Request for Information (RFI), which will be followed by an open approach to the market in the form of a Request for Tender (RFT).

The purpose of the RFI is to assist DFAT in understanding the current market capability and to inform the preparation of any future capability development or procurement documentation. The RFI also aims to provide context and insight to potential property service providers on DFAT, the property portfolio, and the challenges in the management of a diverse global portfolio. DFAT expects that the RFI process will encourage feedback and innovative ideas from potential service providers to inform the framing of the most appropriate property services model that can embrace innovative solutions or approaches that will bethe  subject of the RFT process.

The RFI questionnaire is focused on eliciting the following information from Respondents:

• Capacity and capability of the service provider market to deliver the services required – Global and/or Regional strengths

• Barriers to responding to any future RFT

• Benefits based on previous experience with various delivery options

• Risks based on previous experience with various delivery options

• Improvements to efficiency and effectiveness of property services delivery

• Innovations or other alternate approaches DFAT could consider

• Feedback on the contracting, pricing, and performance model

Through this RFI process, DFAT is open to alternative service delivery approaches aligned to the capability, capacity and strengths of the service provider market.

Respondents are encouraged to put forward any additional services they can offer that may benefit DFAT.

DFAT intends to utilize information collected through this process to inform their decision on the desired scope and delivery model for outsourced property and facilities management services. Respondents should provide sufficient information to assist the Department in planning future procurement activities that may result from this request but avoid including any marketing or irrelevant information in responses to specific questions.