Ahead of the Student Housing Conference we sat down with Georgie Drewery, Senior Account Executive at Yardi, to get her take on the biggest challenges facing PBSA operators today — from rising costs and AI adoption to student welfare and the evolving regulatory landscape.
The rising cost of running a student accommodation business is well-documented. What’s the biggest operational challenge facing PBSA operators right now?
It’s about balancing rising operational costs while still maintaining a high-quality student experience. And when we talk about costs, we mean utilities, staffing, maintenance — all of those are increasing. But at the same time, student expectations are also rising, and technology plays a part in that too.
What’s interesting is that we’re seeing a shift away from simply trying to reduce costs, and more towards improving operational efficiency. Operators are becoming much more focused on streamlining processes. just this year when attending industry events, the messaging has been similar across the board. People are talking about stepping back to look at their current processes, rather than just trying to fix a problem. Working out what they’re doing today so they can make it more efficient — removing manual tasks and really using the data they already have in their systems to make better decisions going forward.
From a Yardi perspective, the real opportunity is in connecting operations end to end — from leasing through to maintenance and all the way through to finance — so teams aren’t duplicating effort, can operate more efficiently, and ultimately scale more quickly.
Student welfare has become an increasingly prominent topic in PBSA. How are operators approaching this now?
There’s been a clear shift in recent years — and I think COVID played a part in that. There was always an element of student welfare, but it was really heightened during the pandemic when operators had to actively check in on their students. Now, welfare is no longer treated as an add-on. It’s becoming a core part of the operational model — and it’s a genuine USP too, as still, not all operators see this as a priority one.
We also need to remember the buying process. Nine times out of ten, there’s a parent or guardian involved — someone asking, “Where is my child going to be living?” So, welfare absolutely feeds into that decision.
Operators are recognising that wellbeing, community and engagement directly impact retention, reputation, and ultimately long-term performance. It’s being embedded into everyday operations — from how teams communicate with students to how it’s tracked and measured.
From a technology perspective, Yardi plays a supporting role here. Take the student app or the CRM — if you can identify early signs of disengagement, like a student who has stopped communicating, stopped responding, stopped signing up to events through the app, that’s a nudge to go and check in on them. It’s about creating an environment where the student feels connected and supported, not just accommodated.
How mature is tech adoption in PBSA today, and where does AI fit into the picture?
Something I’ve been discussing a lot recently is that many businesses think AI should sit with the IT team. I strongly disagree. AI isn’t IT-specific — it has the potential to help every part of the business, from marketing to student services to finance. It needs to be adopted across the whole organisation, not siloed in one department.
In terms of maturity, I’d say it’s still early days. Some operators are highly advanced — fully integrated platforms, strong data strategies. Others are still working through fragmented systems and manual processes. And the reality is, AI won’t work properly without clean, visible data. That’s the foundation.
What’s shifted is the conversation itself. It’s no longer about whether to adopt technology. It’s about how to use it effectively across the whole business.
The areas where I’m seeing AI make the most impact right now are customer service, leasing, and maintenance. That means automating responses to enquiries, removing manual intervention at the front desk, and using data to predict maintenance issues in a building before they happen — being proactive rather than reactive.
But the biggest barrier remains data quality and system integration. AI is powerful, and we’re all still learning. Everyone’s a little nervous about it — understandably — but without clean, connected data as the foundation, it’s very difficult to scale.
Finally, as the UK regulatory landscape continues to evolve, what should operators be focusing on?
With things like the Renters’ Rights Bill coming into effect — even with the PBSA exemptions in place — there’s increased scrutiny around transparency, compliance and student communication. At Yardi, we’ve done a lot of work to ensure our solution is ready and compliant. But for operators, the focus really needs to be on processes: making sure they are robust, auditable, and that you have clear visibility across the whole portfolio.
This is where a centralised platform becomes really important. It allows the whole team to track activity, maintain compliance and adapt quickly as regulations evolve. That’s the power of having one connected tech stack.
And my broader recommendation would be this: the operators who will succeed over the next few years are the ones who treat operations, student experience and technology as a single, connected strategy — not as separate conversations. That’s the mindset shift that I think will define who comes out ahead.
Georgie Drewery is Senior Account Executive at Yardi. This interview took place at the Student Housing Conference 2026.