Abstract

Previous studies assessing the prospects for Islamic home finance in the UK appear to be outdated, predominantly limited to the one-sided views of Islamic scholars/customers without the support of a sound conceptual framework, thereby lacking any research rigour. This study developed an up-to-date conceptual framework constituting four predicting constructs (extendibility, accessibility, affordability and authenticity) — and the target construct prospects (for Islamic home finance in the UK). The framework was assessed by utilising a sample of 144 industry experts (mortgage consultants), deriving their experience (high vs. low) as a categorical variable. The path analysis suggests that accessibility had a significant effect on the prospects for Islamic home finance in the UK, whereas the impact of affordability was insignificant. In contrast, authenticity had the strongest direct effect on the prospects. The multi-group analysis discovered no significant differences between experienced and novice mortgage consultants in relation to the impact of predicting constructs (e.g., affordability, accessibility) on the prospects (for Islamic home finance in the UK). The importance–performance matrix analysis (IPMA) identified authenticity as the high-priority development area, whereas affordability-related attributes of Islamic home finance were found in a low-priority zone. The results and findings of this study provide new and extensive insights into the field of Islamic home finance and contribute to the extant literature in this domain.