Offa Review - Halal Finance Products

Offa (the trading name of Offa Money Limited, FCA 1000573, with Offa Operations, Offa Holdings and two Finco entities behind it) launched in 2019 from Solihull as the UK's first Islamic bridge finance provider, named after the eighth-century King Offa of Mercia whose gold dinar carried the Shahadah - a deliberate flag for its thesis that Islamic finance belongs in Britain's mainstream. Its leadership is the deepest in UK Islamic retail finance: executive chairman Sultan Choudhury OBE was founding CEO of Al Rayan Bank, and Sagheer Malik runs home finance as CCO. Funding mixes Sharia-compliant shareholder capital from Gulf Islamic Investments with tier 1 institutional lines, which is what allowed the shelf to scale from bridging into term products.

The 2026 Home Purchase Plan is the strategic pivot: a regulated, co-ownership-with-leasing product with the lowest entry requirements in the certified market. The crawled rate card runs 5.50% (discounted variable, 65% FTV) and 5.60% (80%) at a GBP 499 fee; 2-year fixes at 5.80% (65% and 80%), 6.60% (90%) and 6.90% (95%); 5-year fixes at 5.75%, 5.88%, 6.58% and 6.88% across the same bands, with GBP 999 fees on the 90% and 95% products, which are UK-resident only (expats stop at 80%). Minimums are modest - GBP 80,000 property, GBP 60,000 finance, age 18 - and two affordability innovations stand out: Family Assist adds relatives to the plan for affordability without property ownership, and Gifted Equity lets a below-market family purchase count the discount as deposit, up to needing no cash deposit at all. Offa claims same-day decisions and potentially same-day offers.

The Buy-to-Let Purchase Plan is the certified market's most flexible: rent-only (the halal equivalent of interest-only) or rent-plus-acquisition, terms to 40 years, individuals, Ltd companies and LLPs, first-time landlords, HMO/MUFB on portfolio applications, expats worldwide, minimum income GBP 18,000 and property values GBP 80,000 to GBP 5 million. Crawled initial rental rates cluster at 6.24% to 6.60% by FTV band (65/75/80%) with a 1% fee (minimum GBP 999); affordability is stressed at 125% coverage (basic rate and corporate) or 140% (higher rate) with personal-income top slicing permitted. The pre-contract disclosure stack - Financial Information Statement, Risk and Features document, Tariff of Charges - is unusually complete for an unregulated product, and spells out the hard truths: Offa is legal owner until buyout, breach can cost sublet rights, default can end in repossession with shortfall liability.

Bridging remains the founding franchise: five variants (residential to 75% gross FTV, commercial to 65% on first charge, light refurbishment funding 100% of costs capped at 30% of value, heavy refurbishment and development to GBP 10m at 75% of GDV or 85% of cost), all from 1% per month with a 2% arrangement fee on terms to 24 months, England and Wales, leaseholds with 70+ years. Bridge-to-Let then chains a bridge purchase into the BTLPP for a flat GBP 495 combined fee - solving bridging's exit-risk problem with a built-in halal refinance, which is both commercially smart and religiously meaningful since it removes the temptation of a conventional exit.

Shariah governance: Amanah Advisors certifies every product, certificates are downloadable, Mufti Faraz Adam appears on video explaining the compliance, and the FAQs answer the classic objections - the co-ownership and lease are two independent contracts rather than a prohibited two-in-one; advertised percentages are rental rates using recognised benchmarks for comparability; Early Buyout Charges are separately approved. The ethical screen bars financing linked to arms, gambling, alcohol, tobacco and animal testing. The genuine caution for a buyer is prudential: Offa's access-maximising design (5% down, 7x income, 95% FTV at 6.9%) shifts more market risk onto thinly capitalised households than any certified rival, and the product generation carrying that risk is less than a year old.