New here? Start with how home finance works in the UK on the edition hub — Home Purchase Plans, the FCA/PRA-regulated banks, the housing reality, and the ISA/LISA/SIPP wrappers worth screening. Then read each provider below, and click through for the full per-provider read.
How we grade
The Six Pillars
Every provider on this page is read against the same six questions — the universal lens this site applies to any home-finance contract, anywhere. The labels change between markets; the test does not. And the underlying case against riba — why it is prohibited at all — is the same everywhere, and lives on /why and /structures.
- 1
Real ownership
Does the financier genuinely take ownership of the asset — even briefly — and bear a real owner's risk, rather than only ever holding a debt secured against it?
- 2
Risk-sharing
If the asset is destroyed or its value collapses, does the financier share that loss in proportion to its stake, or is the customer left bearing it alone?
- 3
Rent vs interest
In a lease/co-ownership, is the rent benchmarked to a genuine market rent for the property — or is it calibrated to an interest rate (a base-rate + margin) in disguise?
- 4
Default mechanism
On default, does the contract behave like the end of a real lease/partnership — or does it accelerate like a loan, demanding the full outstanding 'principal' plus charges?
- 5
No guaranteed pre-fixed return
Is the financier's return tied to real ownership and risk, or is it a pre-fixed, guaranteed sum that arrives regardless of what happens to the asset?
- 6
Substance over form
Strip away the Arabic labels: does the cashflow, risk, and outcome differ from a conventional loan — or is it the same economics wearing a compliant name (ḥiyal)?
Comparison table
Every provider operating in the British market read against the framework, grouped by tier — the verdict reflects the publicly-described structure, and the primary concern is the single biggest open question for that provider. Read the full per-provider entry below before relying on any verdict.
Counted from the entries below. Confidence rates how much of each read rests on documents we could check, not how compliant the provider is. No verdict here is a fatwā.
Home finance & banking
Buying a home
The UK has fully authorised Islamic banks, regulated by the FCA and PRA, with savings protected by the FSCS. That regulatory standing is factual; it does not by itself settle the Shariah question on any individual home-finance contract.
Gatehouse Bank
Banking
StructureHome Purchase Plans (Diminishing Mushārakah + Ijārah) + Buy-to-Let + savings
Main concernRent benchmark vs interest
An FCA/PRA-regulated Islamic bank with FSCS-protected savings and a named, AAOIFI-linked Shariah board — and, since Al Rayan withdrew its retail Home Purchase Plans from sale, one of the principal providers of Home Purchase Plans to UK owner-occupiers. HPP and BTL permissibility is contract-dependent; verify how the rent (profit rate) is calibrated and whether the bank shares loss. Preliminary.
StrideUp
Home finance
StructureCo-ownership (Diminishing Mushārakah) home purchase plan
Main concernRent basis; BTL unregulated; equity ring-fencing
An FCA-authorised home-finance fintech focused on first-time buyers and higher finance-to-value, certified independently by Amanah Advisors (Mufti Faraz Adam's firm). One of the more active residential HPP providers now serving UK owner-occupiers. Buy-to-let products are not FCA-regulated. Permissibility depends on genuine shared ownership, the rent basis and the buy-out terms. Preliminary.
Offa
Home finance
StructureCo-ownership + leasing (Diminishing Mushārakah + Ijārah); bridging, BTL, and now residential HPP
Main concernRent benchmark not named
A Birmingham-based Islamic property-finance fintech that began in Shariah-compliant bridging and, in March 2025, received FCA authorisation to provide residential Home Purchase Plans (reported as the first new HPP licence to a newly-authorised entity in 7+ years). Its own pages name the certifier: 'The Sharia-compliance of our financial products is certified by Amanah Advisors, led by the highly respected scholar Mufti Faraz Adam.' The honest gap is the rent: its FAQ discusses benchmarks but does not name the one it uses. Preliminary.
Primary Finance
Home finance
StructureDiminishing-Mushārakah home & asset finance ('debt-free' model)
Main concernProducts not FCA-regulated; no FSCS
A non-bank provider positioning on a 'truly debt-free' diminishing-mushārakah model, examined in an academic case study. Its products are outside FCA regulation ('none of Pfida's products are FCA regulated'), so there is no Financial Ombudsman or FSCS cover; Pfida Ltd itself is an FCA Appointed Representative 'for arranging deals in investments'. No independent Shariah board is named; IFG reports sign-off by in-house scholar Sheikh Salman Hasan, Pfida's co-founder. Preliminary.
Al Rayan Bank
Banking
StructureSavings & deposits (Islamic) — retail home finance withdrawn from sale; Premier Home Finance for GCC applicants
Main concernRetail HPP withdrawn from sale
The UK's oldest Islamic bank (founded 2004 as Islamic Bank of Britain), fully FCA/PRA-regulated with FSCS-protected deposits. Important: Al Rayan has withdrawn its retail Home Purchase and Buy to Let Purchase Plans from sale ('we have temporarily withdrawn these products from sale, and we are unable to accept any new applications or enquires at the moment'); IFG's review (last updated 8 May 2025) already carried an editor's note that it had stopped. The exception is Premier Home Finance, which 'is currently available to applicants from Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain and Oman'. For a UK-resident owner-occupier it is not a current option; for HPPs see Gatehouse, StrideUp and Offa. Its savings products remain.
Kuwait Finance House PLC (UK)
Home finance
StructureOwner-occupied Home Purchase Plan — Ijārah (lease-to-own co-ownership) and a separate Commodity Murābaḥa (Tawarruq) route
Main concernTawarruq route contested; mainly London; min £250k
Formerly Ahli United Bank UK, now KFH PLC after the Kuwait Finance House acquisition — a genuine PRA/FCA-authorised, FSCS-protected bank offering an owner-occupied HPP. Its Ijārah HPP is a defensible co-ownership-plus-lease structure; but it also offers a Commodity Murābaḥa (Tawarruq) route that carries active scholarly dissent (the OIC Fiqh Academy ruled organised tawarruq impermissible in 2009; AAOIFI permits tawarruq only under conditions that exclude the bank or its agent selling the commodity on the client's behalf). Its home finance is "primarily secured against properties located in London, the Home Counties, Manchester and Milton Keynes" (other locations case by case), with a £250,000 minimum, limiting accessibility for most UK Muslims.
QIB (UK) Plc — Qatar Islamic Bank UK
Home finance
StructureMurābaḥa ("cost-plus financing", in QIB's words) — private banking, London residential only
Main concern£1M minimum relationship — effectively inaccessible
A legitimate PRA/FCA-authorised Islamic bank with a strong SSB (including Sheikh Nizam Yaquby), offering "Shari'a-compliant property financing using Murabaha (cost-plus financing)" for London residential property. QIB's private-banking page does not say whether the bank itself buys and resells the property or uses a commodity (tawarruq) route, so confirm this before signing. It is private banking with a £1,000,000 minimum relationship balance, London-only, so it is not a realistic option for the vast majority of UK Muslims.
BLME / Nomo
Home finance
StructureCommodity Murābaḥa (Tawarruq) residential property finance — but ONLY for GCC residents buying UK property
Main concernNOT available to UK residents; tawarruq contested
A critical scope clarification for UK Muslims: Nomo (the digital brand of Bank of London and The Middle East, PRA/FCA-authorised, FSCS-protected) offers residential property finance, but its own intermediaries criteria restrict it to residents of GCC countries (Bahrain, KSA, Kuwait, Qatar, UAE, Oman) purchasing UK property — UK residents cannot apply. Its structure is Commodity Murābaḥa (tawarruq): the OIC Fiqh Academy ruled organised tawarruq impermissible in 2009, and AAOIFI permits tawarruq only under conditions that exclude the bank (or its agent) selling the commodity on the client's behalf. Listed so UK-based buyers do not wrongly assume Nomo is an option for them.
StructureIslamic digital-banking app (current accounts, Visa debit, FX, ethical controls) — operated as an EMD Agent of Payrnet; the company is now legally dissolved
Main concernCompany dissolved 9 Jan 2025; old domain now redirects elsewhere
A consumer alert rather than an option. Rizq Financial Technologies Ltd was DISSOLVED on 9 January 2025 (Companies House, no. 12460673). Its old web address, getrizq.co, no longer hosts Rizq: when re-checked on 1 October 2026 it redirected to an unrelated gambling domain, so do not visit it. Rizq operated as an e-money (EMD) agent of Payrnet. In June 2023 the Bank of Lithuania revoked the e-money licence of UAB Payrnet, the group's Lithuanian company, for serious violations; the UK company, PayrNet Limited, remains active at Companies House. EMD-agent e-money balances were never FSCS-protected. Do not open accounts; any former customer with funds should contact the FCA/FSCS for guidance.
Investing
Screened equity & funds
Screened-equity products clear the structural lens more cleanly than home finance — they are investments, not debt. Still verify the screening methodology and the dividend-purification policy of each.
Wahed (UK)
Investing
StructureFCA-authorised halal digital wealth manager (robo-advice)
Main concernVerify screening + purification
An FCA-authorised digital halal investing platform with Shariah oversight from Shariyah Review Bureau (SRB), which Wahed has appointed as its Shariah Committee (three named scholars). Structurally an investment product, so the lens is favourable. Verify the screening methodology, fee stack and how dividends are purified.
Cur8 Capital
Investing
StructureHalal private-markets / alternative investments platform
Main concernIlliquid, no FSCS; IFG conflict of interest
A halal private-markets platform (VC, private equity, private credit, real estate) spun out of Islamic Finance Guru, with Shariah oversight reported via Amanah Advisors. Structurally investment-based, but private-markets deals are high-risk, illiquid and generally not FSCS-protected. Note the IFG/Cur8 common ownership when reading IFG coverage. Do your own due diligence on each deal.
Kestrl
Investing
StructureIslamic personal-finance app (budgeting, saving, halal investment marketplace)
Main concernMarketplace; compliance rests with provider
A Muslim money/budgeting app with a halal investment marketplace — software and distribution rather than a fund or adviser. Compliance for any product you buy rests with the third-party provider, not a Kestrl fatwa board. For each product, check the actual provider, the regulatory protection, and who certifies it.
Nester
Investing
StructureShariah-compliant P2P property-finance platform + first Shariah IFISA
Main concernReported commodity murābaḥa contested; scholars unpublished; high-risk P2P, no FSCS
A directly FCA-authorised Shariah-compliant peer-to-peer property-finance platform that launched the UK's first Shariah Innovative Finance ISA (2023). Two things keep it off an unqualified pass: as reported at launch its structure is a commodity murābaḥa (which we read as organised tawarruq, a structure with active scholarly dissent), and its certifying scholars are not published. It is also a high-risk P2P investment — capital is at risk and generally not FSCS-protected. Confirm the current Shariah structure and who certifies it directly.
Yielders
Investing
StructureEquity property crowdfunding via SPVs — passive investment from £100, no leverage or interest; NOT home finance
Main concernInvestment, not home finance; capital-loss risk
The UK's first FCA-regulated Islamic fintech and first UKIFC-certified fintech — an equity property crowdfunding platform where investors buy shares in an SPV owning a specific UK property and receive rental income as dividends. Structurally sound (no riba, no debt), but it is a passive INVESTMENT from £100, not a way to buy a home to live in, and it is a high-risk product where capital can be lost. Now part of Sama Group; its 2017 UKIFC certification named UK scholar Sheikh Abu Eesa, but whether that certification is still current is not stated on Yielders' own pages.
Simply Ethical
Investing
StructureFCA-regulated Shariah investment & advice — ISAs, GIAs, SIPPs and bespoke discretionary portfolios; NOT home finance
Main concernInvestment/advisory, not home finance; higher minimums
A long-established (2009), FCA-regulated Shariah investment and financial-advisory firm offering ISAs, pensions and discretionary portfolios screened to AAOIFI-style standards, with FSCS protection and external SRB Shariah audits (UK scholars Mufti Faraz Adam and Sheikh Muhammad Ahmad). Credible and well-suited to investors with significant assets — but it is not a home-finance provider, and minimums (from £1,000 for online advice and £5,000 for a pension, £100,000 for personal advice and £500,000 for its managed portfolios) are higher than robo-advisors.
Other providers
Beyond home finance & investing
Habib Bank Zurich (UK) — Sirat
Auto / asset finance
StructureSirat Islamic banking — buy-to-let and commercial property finance (co-ownership / Commodity Murābaḥa); NOT owner-occupied residential
Main concernBTL/commercial only; scholars not named
The UK Sirat brand of Habib Bank Zurich Plc (PRA/FCA-authorised, FSCS-protected; the group has operated in the UK since 1974) is a credible Islamic banking window — but it finances buy-to-let and commercial property, not owner-occupied homes, so a buyer seeking a residence cannot use it. External Shariah assurance is provided by IFAAS (Islamic Finance Advisory and Assurance Services), which HBZ says "conducts regular compliance reviews and external Shariah audits", though the individual UK Sirat scholars are not publicly named. Its Commodity Murābaḥa option, where "The Bank organises all the necessary elements of purchasing and selling commodities", reads as organised tawarruq, which the OIC Fiqh Academy ruled impermissible in 2009 (AAOIFI permits tawarruq only under conditions that exclude the bank or its agent selling the commodity on the client's behalf).