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What Gen Z Renters Expect in 2026 │ Erica White, SVP of Innovation & Technology at PeakMade Real Estate

Summary

Erica White is SVP of Innovation & Technology at PeakMade Real Estate, where she leads enterprise technology strategy, innovation, and data. PeakMade is a student housing provider that has managed more than 140,000 beds since 2011. She sits down with host Jacob Kosior to talk about why student renters compare their apartment experience to Amazon and Uber, why she thinks the best resident tech is invisible, and how she evaluates any new tool. Along the way, they get into what conventional multifamily can learn from student housing and how tech conversations at conferences have changed in 2026.

Our residents have incredibly high expectations on what we should be delivering but I don't think it's necessarily for more technology. They expect better technology.

In This Episode

Takeaways

  • The best resident tech is often invisible. Student renters compare their apartment experience to Amazon, Apple and Uber, and they have high expectations for how things work. Some tech, like internet, is as fundamental to them as food and air. They don’t want to think about the tech they’re using. They expect it to work, and convenience is the baseline.
  • Ask what happens if you do nothing. Before backing any new tool, Erica starts with the business problem it solves and the risk of leaving things as they are. From there, she looks at adoption, integration, security and governance, scale, ROI, and whether teams can realistically use it. Her test for the long run: will it still create value two years from now?
  • The people closest to the work belong at the table. Some of Erica’s best technology decisions come from listening to onsite teammates. It’s the same approach she takes to leadership: she wants her team to challenge ideas, including hers, because people support what they help create. She hears the wider industry moving the same way, with conference conversations shifting from stacking tools to getting people ready for change.
  • Student housing is a proving ground for new tech. Students are digital natives. They adapt quickly to new experiences, and they speak up fast when something isn’t working. With one shot each year to get the season right, the student housing sector has learned to test, iterate and pivot quickly, and Erica sees that as a lesson the broader multifamily industry can borrow.

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