Managing Director of financial technology companies Link2Lenders and Real Estate Hub, Jason Dear, says his companies are committed to simplifying the process of buying a home in Jamaica. 

Link2Lenders was founded in 2019.  It’s a real estate platform that connects potential home buyers with financial institutions that compete to provide the best options to finance the purchase.

Speaking on Taking Stock with Kalilah Reynolds, Dear explained that the platform allows Jamaicans to submit one online application and have it sent to multiple lenders. 

“Internally, my team will do all the due diligence work on behalf of the lenders and then the application is submitted to various banks and credit unions across Jamaica,” he said.

“They then bid on your application for you to pick the best option for you, without you having to physically go into a lending institution,” he added.

The service is free to customers as Link2Lenders is paid a commission by the institutions it works with. 

“For the banks or credit unions, it takes away a lot of the burden for them in branch. It helps to augment their services to make it more streamlined,” he shared.

Further to their goal in simplifying the real estate process, Dear said the company launched its new Real Estate Hub platform this year. 

“Real Estate Hub is a one stop shop not just for buyers looking for mortgages but also sellers of property, realtors, land surveyors and attorneys among others,” he said.

The platform, similar to its parent company Link2Lenders, allows customers to submit one application and have various professions bid on their application. Customers are then able to choose the option that best suits their needs.

Dear said the company’s goal is to make owning a home in Jamaica less stressful for everyone involved. 

Expansion Plans

The Managing Director said the company has also been eyeing several Caribbean countries to expand its business. 

“We’ve realised that we can literally copy and paste our same formula into other islands,” he said.

Dear revealed that the company has already begun talks in Barbados and St Kitts and Nevis. 

“And those countries’ banks and industry players have been really receptive to what we’re bringing, because like I said it helps to augment their services,” he said.

Additionally, he said that the company is targeting Jamaicans living overseas.

“Because they earn significantly more, for the most part, and are always looking to reinvest home in Jamaica,” he said. 

He also revealed that roughly 40% of the business’s clients are Jamaicans in the diaspora. 

Plans for an IPO?

Dear said that expanding the fintech business will require significant capital, which the company plans to raise through an initial public offer when the time is right.

“It [listing on the Jamaica Stock Exchange] is definitely something that we’re going to be looking to achieve in the next three to five years,” he said. 

WATCH THE INTERVIEW HERE