Conventional and Islamic finance of home purchase : Islamic house financing is much more expensive than conventional one

Fatawa Question

Dear Dr Monzer Kahf, Assalamu Alaykum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuhu First and foremost, May Allah reward you for excellent work you have done and continue to do so on Islamic Finance. I often refer to your Fatawa and it is truly a blessing to have you among us in North America. I am writing to seek your advice concerning the situation I am in. I've read background and differences between conventional mortgages and Islamic financing. But so far I've not seen any opinion on situation similar to mine. Here is my situation and I'll be brief. 1. We are married couple with two children. 2. After a lot of careful thinking and contemplating, we can say that we are in need of a home and have finally decided to buy one. 3. We have done extensive research and looked at both, new and existing homes, Due to current housing crisis it would be cheaper and make sense to go with new home in our city. 4. Almost all the Builders in our area are offering huge discounts if we finance with them. One we might go with is offering 50,000 discount on home price and 1 % reduction in mortgage rate. 5. It is not that Islamic Financing is not available, it is but it will cost us huge, 50,000 upfront and then at least 1 % higher rate. 6. I've read few blogs but not Fatawa that it is permissible to get conventional loan where seller and lender are same entity, in my case it will be builder. I've read about fatwa on conventional financing in Second International Conference on Fiqh in North America (Detroit, fall of 1999, chaired by Shaikh Qaradawi.) that when Islamic financing is not available it is permissible to resort to conventional. In my case it is available but it will cost us a lot. I am in dilemma if that applies to me or not. Also, what is your opinion on # 6 above ? I'd appreciate your valuable response. Jazakallahu Khair Wassalam Nadeem

Fatwa

Click hereto view more

Publication Date

2009-06-06

Main Subjects

Financial and Accounting Sciences
Islamic Studies

Topics

• Islamic jurisprudence
• Housing
• Financing
• Loans
• Purchasing
• Real property
• Commercial finance companies
• Usury
• Subprime mortgage

No. of Pages

2

Data Type

Fatawa

Language

English

Record ID

BIM-734908

• APA
• MLA
• AMA