Sharia-compliant home finance

Murabaha is a cost-plus-profit sale structure where the bank buys the property and sells it to you at an agreed markup, paid in installments. Ijara is a lease-to-own structure where you pay rent plus a portion toward ownership until the property transfers to you. Ijara is by far the more common structure in the UAE, making up roughly 70% of Islamic home finance transactions.

Yes — Islamic home finance is a Sharia-compliant financial product open to any qualifying buyer, regardless of religion.

Yes, the same CBUAE LTV caps apply regardless of whether the structure is conventional or Islamic.

Structurally, Islamic finance avoids charging interest directly — instead, the bank earns a pre-agreed profit margin (Murabaha) or rental payment (Ijara), which in practice produces a comparable monthly cost to a conventional rate.

Several major UAE banks offer Islamic home finance alongside conventional products, including Dubai Islamic Bank, Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank, and Emirates Islamic. We compare live Murabaha and Ijara offers across our lender panel as part of your eligibility check, since pricing and eligibility shift between banks regularly.

Neither is universally better, they’re structured differently to reach a similar outcome. In practice, pricing between the two is often comparable once you compare the full cost over the term, so the deciding factor for most buyers is personal preference or religious requirement rather than one being objectively cheaper.

Having Islamic financing rather than a conventional mortgage doesn’t block Golden Visa eligibility on its own. Mortgaged property, whether financed conventionally or through Ijara, can qualify for the property investor Golden Visa provided your bank issues a No Objection Certificate and the property meets the AED 2 million value threshold. Exactly how that threshold is assessed against an outstanding mortgage has been updated during 2026, so confirm the current rule with your bank and a visa specialist at the time you apply.