Islamic property finance fintech Offa, is now offering Sharia-compliant buy-to-let finance to first-time buyers.
As part of the launch, Offa has reduced the minimum age required to 18-years-old in a series of criteria changes aimed at widening access to Sharia-compliant finance.
Buy-to-let applicants will need to earn just £18,000 per annum and the way finance affordability is assessed has been simplified so that customers with terms under five years pay the standard rate plus 1%, while those with terms of five years or more pay the standard rate.
As part of the new criteria, portfolio clients will be subjected to more realistic stress testing, based on the average of current five-year fixed rate products, currently 6.6%, rather than standard variable rate – making large portfolio cases more viable.
Offa has also expanded opportunities for overseas clients, with British expats in Malaysia and Hong Kong also now eligible for Offa’s Sharia-compliant finance.
Offa follows an ethical finance model designed in accordance with Islamic finance principles, which means not charging interest and investment into sectors deemed harmful to society – such as alcohol, tobacco, animal testing and the arms trade.
Sagheer Malik, chief commercial officer and managing director of retail finance at Offa, said: “We strive to make our Sharia-compliant home finance available to the majority of people rather than just the richest among us, which means constantly working to make our services inclusive and affordable.
“This is an example of our actions speaking louder than our words, as we now accept first time buyers for the first time, drop the minimum required age 18 and make our stress testing more transparent, along with many other changes to that make applying for our finance straightforward, quick and easy.”
