A UK property-investment platform, a 'PayPal for mortgages,' founded by Landbay co-founder Gray Stern to let investors buy a fully-managed rental in a single flow.
Buying a quality investment property meant stitching together mortgage brokers, lenders, agents, and refurbishers across weeks of paperwork and cost. That friction priced out busy investors and kept good returns out of reach, while UK renters were stuck with a market known for poor value. Dot’s founder wanted the entire transaction stacked end-to-end, so an investor could buy in a single step.
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Gray Stern spent more than 20 years in property finance and co-founded Landbay, a fast-growing marketplace lender for the UK’s private rented sector. He kept seeing the same problem: quality real estate investment stayed out of reach for most people because the process was slow, fragmented, and expensive.
His idea was a platform offering instant mortgage financing, a “PayPal for mortgages,” applied to good-quality rental properties that generate strong returns. Investors would get a low-touch, cost-effective way to buy; lenders could deliver mortgages at the point of sale; and residents would move into high-end homes they actually love. Gray founded Dot Residential and brought the concept to OAK’S LAB to build from scratch.
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The mandate was to build the whole system from scratch: an investor flow to buy and manage properties instantly, a lender flow to originate and fund the loans, and an admin layer for Dot to run refurbishment, listings, sales, and loan origination, all working together seamlessly.
The goal was proof: demonstrate the model by selling five properties. That set a hard deadline, the platform had to be live before the first five properties finished refurbishment.
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Gray flew to Prague to align the team on the plan, and we worked alongside Dot’s in-house team both onsite and offsite. We started with the institutional loan infrastructure, since instant mortgages depended on connecting originators, lenders, borrowers, and brokers.
We combined leading-edge web technology to support near-instant transactions without sacrificing security, then connected every component so a listed property could be funded by a lender and bought by an investor in a single flow.
Lets investors buy and manage investment properties in a few clicks. Submit a deposit and the purchase completes, with returns generated while the loan is paid down.
Enables lenders to originate and fund loans instantly, delivering mortgage financing at the exact point of sale. It’s underpinned by institutional loan-origination infrastructure that bridges originators, investors, borrowers, and brokers, and supports selling pools of mortgages to investors.
Organizes complex property data into a clear, confidence-building experience for first-time and seasoned investors, with an eCommerce-style checkout to invest simply and quickly.
Gives Dot a single place to run the entire operation: refurbishing properties, listing them, selling them, and administering loan origination.
Model validated. Dot sold all five target properties during the engagement, proving the end-to-end platform worked with real buyers and real capital.
Momentum to scale. £1.5M raised in venture capital, with Dot continuing to grow with its own in-house team.
“They’ve been there from start to finish and feel like they’re part of your in-house team.”
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