Reacting to the rapid growth in this niche sector, Consilium said its new office in Luton, due to open next month, will cater solely to Muslim clients as the potential in this area continues to increase.
Kevin Morgan, managing director of Hertfordshire-based Consilium, said: “This market is growing fast and we think other brokers will want to jump into this sector. We already have a lot of Muslim clients and are up-to-speed on all the types of Muslim mortgage deals out there.”
“Interestingly though, many of our Muslim clients do actually ask for ‘normal’ mortgages. But we felt it was necessary to have an operation catering just for this market and we have also hired new staff that are trained to give advice in this area,” Morgan added.
A recent report by Datamonitor predicted the UK Islamic mortgage market will grow at an average of 47 per cent per year to reach £1.4 billion in gross advances by 2009 as more mainstream lenders realise its untapped potential.
Karen Garner, spokesperson at HSBC, said: “Since HSBC launched its Islamic finance division in 1998 over 1,800 people have applied for over £215 million of Amanah Home Finance.
“The Islamic financial services sector is continually evolving and future developments from HSBC Amanah are likely to include the introduction of Takaful (Islamic) insurance, commercial finance and savings accounts.”
