GII acquires majority stake in London House Exchange following FCA approval

Gulf Islamic Investments has acquired a majority stake in London House Exchange following regulatory approval from the Financial Conduct Authority. The GCC-based alternative investment manager took control of the Sharia-compliant fractional property investment venue from US digital homeownership company Better, which retains a minority equity stake in the platform. The deal consideration and precise percentage of equity transferred were not disclosed by the participating entities.

Scale of the exchange

London House Exchange currently manages £120m of assets under management, according to Trustpilot filings. The platform has recorded £55m of property shares traded across its venue to date. The transaction follows a prior restructuring in January 2023, when the entity rebranded from Property Partner to London House Exchange after receiving a £2.4m capital injection from Better. Better originally acquired the platform in 2021 before diluting its position in this transaction.

The investment connects a platform managing £120m in residential assets to an entity with significant cross-border scale. Gulf Islamic Investments is a UAE-based alternative investment manager founded in 2014 by co-CEOs Mohammed Al Hassan and Pankaj Gupta, managing over $3 billion in global assets. The majority stake in London House Exchange builds directly on prior UK deployments, including June 2022, when Gulf Islamic Investments acquired a 51% majority stake in UK Sharia-compliant bridge finance provider OFFA.

Mechanism of fractional distribution

London House Exchange operates as an FCA-regulated stock exchange and trading venue specifically structured for the fractional ownership of individual residential properties. On our reading, the structural rationale for Gulf Islamic Investments lies in acquiring established UK regulatory architecture and an existing distribution pipe for Sharia-compliant real estate equity. Rather than establishing a new vehicle and applying for fresh permissions from the Financial Conduct Authority, the transaction grants Gulf Islamic Investments direct operational control of a fully regulated trading venue.

This infrastructure allows for the fractionalisation of individual residential assets into tradable equity shares. By combining London House Exchange with its existing 51% majority holding in UK Sharia-compliant bridge financing provider OFFA, Gulf Islamic Investments secures operational reach across both senior bridge debt generation and equity capital distribution. On our analysis, this vertical alignment provides the UAE-based manager with a proprietary conduit to originate, bridge, and syndicate UK property risk directly to retail and institutional capital pools.

Consequence for institutional allocators

For cross-border investors and asset managers, the primary consequence of this transaction is the further institutionalisation of Middle Eastern capital channels into regulated UK real estate technology. Gulf Islamic Investments is acquiring market access to capitalise on cross-border private equity appetite for UK residential real estate. On our reading, the likely effect is an acceleration in the creation of Sharia-compliant equity syndication vehicles targeting fractional residential assets in the UK.

Institutional managers seeking cross-border co-investment partners should anticipate Gulf Islamic Investments utilizing London House Exchange as a primary capital raising conduit. The presence of an FCA-regulated venue reduces structural friction for Gulf-based allocators placing equity into individual UK residential properties. On our analysis, this setup enables Gulf Islamic Investments to package UK real estate equity directly for global retail and private wealth investors requiring Sharia-compliant structural compliance.

The counterweight

For this analytical reading to be incorrect, the underlying asset-level market mechanics of London House Exchange must actively impair capital deployment. Retail investors on the platform report secondary trading illiquidity and low financial returns, with property shares frequently unable to sell at suggested market values, according to Trustpilot feedback. If secondary market liquidity cannot be sustained across the trading venue, fractional equity holders face ongoing lock-in risks that could undermine investor participation.

Furthermore, if underlying residential property net yields remain depressed or secondary market discounts widen significantly against book value, retail investor redemptions could constrain platform expansion. If Gulf Islamic Investments fails to resolve secondary trading illiquidity on the exchange, the venue may prove ineffective as a scalable distribution venue for larger institutional property portfolios.

What to watch

To evaluate the long-term execution of this transaction, market participants should track whether Gulf Islamic Investments integrates its 51% holding in bridge lender OFFA with London House Exchange to create end-to-end debt and equity funding structures for UK residential deals. Investors should monitor subsequent platform filings to establish whether asset under management figures expand beyond the current £120m baseline, and whether secondary trading volumes rise above the historical £55m cumulative metric.