Ethical Mortgages For Everyone

You can be of any race, creed or religion to benefit from an Islamic Mortgage.

We work with the Al Rayan Bank who are market leaders in the expat and Shari’ah finance space with (but not limited to) the following USP’s:

  • Shariah compliant commercial and retail finance

  • Finance for British expats living anywhere in the world that is not a sanctioned country

  • Finance for expats working for schools and employers do not need to be international companies

  • No ERC’s (even for fixed products)

  • No tie-ins (even for fixed products)

  • Up to 4 applicants for Resi deals and able to use all 4 incomes

  • Top slicing for BTL deals

  • New builds at same FTV/LTV as normal properties

  • Min prop value 80k, min finance value 30k

 On a macro level, they are a Qatari-owned, fully UK regulated bank, known formerly as the Islamic Bank of Britain (IBB). IBB was acquired by Masraf Al Rayan in late 2014 and we re-branded to ‘Al Rayan Bank PLC’ (https://www.alrayanbank.co.uk/). We are the premier Islamic Bank in Europe that is wholly sharia compliant and ethical and now have over  £1 billion of assets on our book (http://www.financialreporter.co.uk/finance-news/al-rayan-bank-surpasses-1-billion-in-assets.html).  

 

Although An Islamic, Sharia Principles and Prohibitions in finance can benefit everyone

Sharia law differentiates Islamic finance from conventional finance. The Islamic financial system is constructed on economic concepts specified by sharia — a code of conduct that guides Muslims (the followers of Islam) in social, economic, and political matters. Sharia promotes balance and justice and discourages behaviors of excess.

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At the time of their takeover, the UK balance sheet was re-capitalised and the strategy expanded to finance larger commercial property deals and financing GCC clients via a new premier banking team. We are an Islamic retail bank in Britain and all our documentation is Sharia compliant.  There are three divisions of Al Rayan Bank in the UK for finance:

 1. CPF – Commercial Property Finance, the appetite is:

    • minimum £3.0m of finance, sweet spot is £10m to £20m.  The UK branch can underwrite a maximum of £24m on its balance sheet and in excess of this we can look to syndicate with our parent bank, Masraf Al Rayan in Qatar.  We will also consider syndicating with other Islamic financiers.

    • maximum of 70% FTV (typically 50% to 65% FTV)

    • maximum term of 10 years (although typically up to 5 years and for development deals up to 3 years- Please note that all development deals are currently on hold.)

    • pricing is based on UK Base Rate (currently 0.25%) plus a margin (which is a minimum of 3.25%), in addition to an arrangement fee.  For development finance our margins would be around 5% over UK Base Rate plus (as a guide) 1% fee upfront and 2% exit.

    • Sectors include UK residential investment portfolios and residential development, student accommodation, hotels and pre-let development, commercial property (retail, logistics, industrial and office).

    • Clients can be from most jurisdictions provided KYC is satisfied. 

 2. GCC Markets – Gulf Corporation Council Markets – Premier Banking whose core business in the UK is to finance: (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulf_Cooperation_Council#Member_states)

    • clientele buying UK residential property for investment or own purposes who are based in or from the GCC

    • minimum finance of £500,000 up to £20,000,000

    • typically up to 70% FTV

    • term up to 20 years.

 3. Retail – The team I work in, providing Home Purchase Plans, the Islamic equivalent of a standard home loan in the UK, and Buy-to-Let finance. UK residents or expats applying for Islamic finance for UK residential investment property are eligible to apply. This is the IBB business that has been operating since 2004. Conventional alternatives to banking liability products such as current accounts, savings accounts and ISA’s, amongst others, are also available

 Our intermediary service is ‘Introducer/referral only’. We pay 0.5% gross of the finance amount as procuration fees for BTL and Commercial deals, and 0.35% for resi deals, including GCC deals.

RATES:

 Min Finance amount for BTL and Resi : 30k

Min Property Value: 80k

Applicants:4 for Residentia & 2  for all BTL

 Max BTL FTV for expat: 75% (75% for UK residents)

Max RESI FTV for expat: 80% (if an applicant is living in property- otherwise 5% reduction)

 We have 3 main types of Expat deal we can do:

 UK Residential Base (with no applicant living in the property, max FTV of 75%)

UK Residential Split home– with one applicant living in the property, we can do the full 80% FTV)

BTL– Max expat FTV of 75%