UAE's Gulf Islamic Investments Takes Control of UK Property Exchange

Gulf Islamic Investments Group now holds a controlling interest in London House Exchange, a London-based regulated venue where participants buy and sell stakes in individual British properties. The UAE-based Sharia-compliant alternative investment group confirmed the deal in a Wednesday statement. The size of its stake and the value of the transaction were not disclosed.

The UK's Financial Conduct Authority approved the change of control. Better Home & Finance Holding Company, the Nasdaq-listed home finance firm that took over LHX in 2021, had been its only shareholder until the deal closed. It keeps a strategic minority position.

LHX, previously known as Property Partner, continues as the same FCA-authorized company, according to a FAQ published alongside the statement.

Trading on the exchange is suspended until 1:00 PM AST on Monday, October 5. The pause is intended to give clients time to read the statement before placing orders, a step LHX described as standard market practice. Deposits and withdrawals are unaffected, existing orders remain in place, and fees, terms and the method used to value properties stay as they are.

For GII, the exchange's infrastructure for issuance, trading, settlement and secondary transfer provides a UK footing for structuring and distributing a broader range of alternative investments. Anand Periwal, the group's chief operating officer for financial services, said the two firms intend to widen the investment options open to clients.

Under the new ownership, LHX plans to add institutional-grade, asset-backed fixed income products, private credit among them, while UK property stays at the center of the platform. Clients would also get priority access to deals GII brings forward, from initial public offerings to real estate, and the company intends to spend on platform technology and market operations.

Products already listed that do not meet Sharia rules remain active. Every new product will be structured to comply, generating profit rather than interest.

Within the FCA's framework, the platform intends to examine tokenization of real-world assets, a way of recording ownership of an asset such as a share in a property on a distributed ledger. It said this is not cryptocurrency and is not a change being made now.

Any deal that GII or one of its group companies originates and lists on the platform will carry a disclosure of that relationship and face the same governance, due diligence and approval checks applied to other investments on LHX.

GII was established in 2014 and manages $3.5 billion in assets across private equity, real estate, private credit and financial services. London House Exchange is its second investment in UK financial services, following Offa, an FCA-regulated provider of Sharia-compliant property finance. GII also wholly owns Vision Bank, a licensed digital Islamic bank regulated by the Abu Dhabi Global Market, and its portfolio includes a private credit platform across the GCC.