QIB (UK)
The UK subsidiary of Qatar Islamic Bank, writing Sharia-compliant structured real estate finance from £1m to £50m out of a Mayfair desk, with a bias to larger tickets.
What they do
QIB (UK) is a PRA-authorised Islamic bank whose structured real estate team funds investment and development property: offices, industrial and logistics, retail, hotels, student accommodation and residential development, from around £1m to £50m and beyond. Pricing is a fixed margin over Bank of England base rate or a fixed rate, structured through murabaha and comparable Sharia-compliant contracts rather than interest-bearing loans. The desk qualifies a deal on a call before issuing terms, and third-party accounts put the path from enquiry to completion at roughly four to eight weeks.
Where they fit in a lower-mid-market raise
For an internationally-owned property holding, particularly one with Gulf shareholders, this is a bank whose structures and clients align without adaptation. It funds development as well as standing assets, and its size means a whole £3–15m requirement can sit with one lender. Where a borrower is comparing Islamic providers, the published band is wide enough to make it a live alternative to the other Gulf-owned banks in London.
Where they are not the fit
Ticket sizes skew larger and towards high-net-worth and institutional investors, so the bottom of a £3–15m raise should be confirmed with the desk rather than assumed. The Sharia screen rules out alcohol, gambling, tobacco, pork, adult, weapons and conventional interest income, and every deal must be structurable in a compliant form. There is no corporate cashflow lending.
Published terms
- Pricing
- Not published
- Speed to terms
- Not published
- Sponsored or sponsorless
- HNW or corporate real estate investors and developers; larger ticket bias
- Where they lend
- UK real estate (GB); Mayfair-based desk
- How they decide
- Relationship-led; qualified call before term sheet
As published by the lender and last reviewed August 2026. Terms quoted on a deal are set by the credit, not by a published band.
What rules a deal out
Stated limits, taken from QIB (UK)’s own published criteria. A limit is where a lender starts from, not where it always ends: several of these move on a strong enough credit.
- Sharia screen: no alcohol, gambling, tobacco, pork, adult, weapons or conventional interest-based finance; deal must be structurable Sharia-compliant (Murabaha/Ijara)
- No appetite in adult, alcohol, conventional finance, gambling or pork
How they sit against the category
- Its published ceiling of £50m is among the 4 highest of the 42 challenger and specialist banks here.
- Like 24 of the 42, it publishes no indicative price — a margin comes from a conversation, not a page.
Counted across the 42 challenger & specialist banks in this directory, on what each one publishes. What a lender discloses and what it will do are different things.
Questions this page answers
How large a facility does QIB (UK) write?
Published facilities run £1m to £50m. A band is what a lender states it will do, not what it will do on a given credit.
Does QIB (UK) lend to companies without a private-equity sponsor?
Yes. QIB (UK) lends to owner-managed and corporate borrowers, and publishes no private-equity sponsor proposition.
Where does QIB (UK) lend?
QIB (UK) lends in UK real estate (GB); Mayfair-based desk.
What does QIB (UK) lend?
The published product set is structured real estate finance. Published sector focus is commercial investment, hotel, industrial, logistics, office.
Sources
This profile is a curated reference note drawn from public sources, not financial advice or a recommendation. Appetite and terms change; a lender's fit for a given credit is established by approaching it, not inferred from a page.