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Bahrain Islamic Bank (BIsB), the first Islamic bank in the kingdom, has signed a memorandum of understanding with Riffa Views Signature Estates to provide finance option for the purchase of homes within Bahrain’s premier residential development.
Using the Islamic finance plans, customers will be able to purchase two and three-bedroom townhouses and spacious four and five-bedroom luxury villas within the Oasis and Lagoons phases of Riffa Views Signature Estates.
The memorandum allows BIsB to finance prospective buyers of homes in Riffa Views through two financing programs: Tas’heel programme for the construction phase, followed by the decreasing Musharaka program. The latter is an Islamic form of financing long-term property transactions.
Through the decreasing Musharaka, customers are given property finance of up to BD300,000 with a repayment period of up to 25 years.
The rate of profit for such transactions is competitive and amounts to 8.5 per cent.
The decreasing Musharaka contract is a Sharia compliant housing solution, available to both Bahraini and expatriate customers in the local market and abroad.
BIsB general manager retail banking Mohammed Ebrahim Mohammed said: “We at BIsB appreciate and value the agreement signed with Riffa Views and consider them as strategic partners in this venture.
“With all the facilities and benefits offered by BIsB to its consumer and corporate customers, we become a major financier of projects in the Bahrain and are pleased to be associated with a quality and internationally renowned project like Riffa Views.”
Riffa Views Signature Estates chief executive Richard Browning added: “This partnership marks another means of providing our discerning buyers with various financing options to support their purchase at Riffa Views. We see BIsB as a premier Islamic banking institution in Bahrain, and hope that existing and new customers will benefit from this latest finance offering.”
Through this understanding with Riffa Views, expatriate and Bahraini customers with monthly incomes of BD800 or more will be able to purchase residential units in Riffa Views. BIsB’s finance plans are Sharia compliant and have been approved by the bank’s Sharia Supervisory Board.
Mr Mohammed said: “Our finance schemes include a Takaful insurance on the customer’s life so that the remaining installments are waived in case of death. The property will also be insured in co-operation with a leading Islamic insurance company. Our rate of profit for this product is also considered the lowest in the market, giving a true service to customers.”
