Adrian Moloney, Group Lending Distribution Director, OSB Group
As Rely approaches its first birthday, I’ve found myself reflecting on the journey we’ve been on over the past twelve months.
Like any major launch, there was a real sense of anticipation before we went live.
Bringing a new lender to market is one thing. Retiring a well-known buy to let brand and asking brokers to embrace something entirely new is quite another. We believed strongly in what we were building, but there is always a moment before launch when you wonder whether the market will respond in the way you hope.
Looking back now, what stays with me most is the level of collaboration that helped shape Rely before it ever reached the market.
We didn’t set out simply to create a new brand. We wanted to create a new lender and a better experience for brokers and their landlord clients. That meant listening carefully to brokers and involving them from the beginning.
More than 50 broker firms took part in the pilot programme before launch, while insights from more than 500 brokers helped shape the proposition. Some advisers worked directly with our teams, reviewing the system and helping us refine the experience before it reached the wider market.
Those conversations reinforced something I’ve believed throughout my career: the best specialist lending propositions are built in collaboration with brokers.
Rely was also about much more than launching a new brand. It brought together OSB Group’s buy to let propositions, creating a dedicated lender that combined the expertise, relationships and experience developed through both Precise and Kent Reliance for Intermediaries. In doing so, it gave us the opportunity to create something new, with a proposition and platform designed around the needs of landlords and the brokers who support them.
One of the biggest benefits of the transformation programme is that brokers who previously needed to log into eight separate platforms or systems to access buy to let and residential propositions are now able to access everything through a single platform. That might sound like a simple change, but for busy advisers it means less time navigating systems and more time supporting clients.
Twelve months on, it’s incredibly encouraging to see how positively brokers have responded.
One milestone that stands out is reaching £1 billion on the balance sheet during our first year. What made that achievement particularly meaningful was knowing it reflected the confidence brokers had placed in a completely new lender.
That achievement sits alongside a number of other milestones that would have been difficult to imagine before launch.
From a standing start, Rely has attracted more than 8,700 registered brokers, generated more than 21,900 applications and delivered more than 12,615 completions. What means the most isn’t the numbers themselves. It’s knowing that each registration, application and completion represents a broker who gave a new lender an opportunity and trusted us to deliver for their clients.
The response we’ve received has been equally encouraging. Brokers have told us they value the simplicity of the platform, the smoother offer-to-completion process and the fact that experienced people remain available when they need support with more complex cases. We’ve seen some cases complete in a matter of hours rather than days, demonstrating what can be achieved when technology and specialist expertise work together. For me, that balance between technology and human expertise remains central to what specialist lending should be.
That focus on understanding customers has continued beyond the launch itself. Our recent Next Gen Landlords research found that Millennials and Gen Z are expected to account for 62% of landlords within the next decade, with more than a third of aspiring next generation landlords expecting to inherit a property they can rent out. Understanding how the next generation may enter the market, build their portfolios and approach property ownership is helping us stay closely connected to the people brokers will be supporting in the years ahead.
One of the defining features of Rely’s first year is that we’ve never stood still. We have continued refining the platform, improving the lending journey and responding to what brokers tell us they need. That willingness to evolve has been there since day one and remains a defining part of the business today.
As we celebrate our first birthday, it's important to recognise the people behind that progress. The brokers who helped shape the proposition, the firms that backed us from launch, the landlords who trusted us with their business and the colleagues across OSB Group who brought Rely to life have all contributed to what has been an incredible first year.
To mark the occasion, we’re also giving something back to the intermediary community. All brokers registered with Rely can enter a prize draw to win a £500 Virgin Experience Days voucher, with entries open until 11 December 2026.
When I look back on our first year, it isn’t the milestones that stand out the most. It’s the way brokers engaged with a new buy to let lender, the ideas they shared and the part they’ve played in helping Rely become what it is today.
Thank you to everyone who has been part of the story so far.