Islamic financier Offa has started offering first-time buyers finance, at the same time as dropping its minimum age to 18.
Buy-to-let applicants need to earn a minimum of £18,000 per year, while rates start from 6.29% with a 1% fee (minimum of £999).
Sagheer Malik, chief commercial officer & 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.”
Customers with terms under five years must pay the standard rate plus 1%, while those with terms of five years or more just pay the standard rate.
Portfolio clients are stress tested 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 BTL finance.