Birmingham-based fintech Offa has launched a new regulated Islamic home finance product that promises to deliver offers within 60 minutes, positioning itself as significantly faster than traditional high street banks. The company announced the move on Monday, highlighting its ambition to modernise and streamline the Islamic finance experience in the UK.
The new Home Purchase Plan (HPP), a Sharia-compliant alternative to a conventional residential mortgage, uses a fully paperless application process. Offa said offers can be generated within an hour, subject to credit rating and risk criteria. The system relies on digital Know Your Customer (KYC) checks, automated income and expenditure verification, and an automated valuation model to speed up decision-making.
According to the HomeOwners Alliance, conventional mortgage applications typically take between two and four weeks to process. Offa said its accelerated turnaround compares favourably with that timeframe and marks the first new regulated Home Purchase Plan to be launched in more than seven years.
Sagheer Malik, chief commercial officer and managing director of home finance at Offa, said the company is “revolutionising the cumbersome world of Islamic finance — challenging and beating conventional high street banks on speed while also allowing family members to help with payments.”
A key feature of the product is a Sharia-compliant “Family Assist” option, which allows relatives to be added to a finance plan to support affordability assessments while the primary applicant remains the sole legal owner of the property. Customers can borrow up to seven times their income, subject to affordability and underwriting criteria, with deposits starting from 5 per cent.
The plan also accommodates “gifted equity,” enabling buyers to purchase property from family members below market value while securing finance based on the full valuation, potentially removing the need for a cash deposit.
Under the structure, customers enter into a co-ownership arrangement with Offa and make monthly payments to gradually increase their share in the property, rather than paying interest, which is prohibited under Islamic finance principles. The company said its model avoids investment in sectors such as arms, gambling, alcohol and tobacco.
The Financial Conduct Authority authorised Offa last year to provide Home Purchase Plans to UK customers. The company recently acquired Bank of Ireland’s Alburaq Sharia-compliant home finance portfolio and has expanded into bridging and buy-to-let products, saying it now offers the widest range of Islamic property finance products in the UK.