First time buyers are now being offered Sharia-compliant buy-to-let (BTL) finance by Offa, the UK’s leading Islamic property finance fintech, and the minimum age required has now dropped to 18-years-old – in a series of customer criteria changes aimed at widening access to Sharia-compliant finance for the general public.

BTL applicants will only need to earn £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 percent, while those with terms of five years or more just 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 BTL finance.

Sagheer Malik, Chief Commercial Officer & Managing Director of Retail Finance, 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.”

Powered by the latest software, Offa’s innovative BTL service meets the needs of both Muslim and non-Muslim property investors with fast finance decisions and paperless processes – dragging the traditionally old-fashioned and cumbersome world of Islamic finance into the 21st century.

Offa received £230 million of sharia-compliant funding for its BTL product, offering significant capacity for the business to expand and diversify its financial propositions in the UK property market.

The company 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.