AltRent is The Alternative Bank's rent finance product: the bank pays your landlord the full annual rent upfront and you repay the bank in monthly instalments. The published terms are a cap of N5 million on residential rent and N2.5 million on commercial rent, eligibility limited to confirmed employees of 'reputable organisations' and owners of registered businesses at least three years old, and a property that is finished, habitable and 'relatively secure'. The bank does not publish the markup, the total cost or the contract it uses, so the product is only as good as the term sheet you are shown. For a salaried tenant facing a year-upfront demand it is the only non-interest bank product of its kind in Nigeria; apply, and price it carefully before you sign.
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The problem AltRent solves
Most Nigerian landlords, especially in Lagos, Abuja and Port Harcourt, want a year's rent in advance, sometimes two. A salaried tenant earns monthly. The gap has historically been filled by salary advances, cooperative loans, family, or loan apps charging interest that compounds monthly. For a Muslim tenant every interest-bearing route is closed, and the halal routes (a cooperative that charges a flat administrative fee, an employer advance, a Qard from family) are limited in size. AltRent is a bank-scale answer: the bank fronts the rent, you spread it. The Alternative Bank's own copy puts it plainly on its personal banking page, describing customers who 'pay their rent in monthly instalments while the bank pays their annual rent upfront'.
The product sits inside a wider range. The same personal banking page lists AltEdu for school fees, AltCar for vehicles, AltHome for home purchase and a personal finance line for household items, all on the same principle of the bank buying the asset or paying the service provider and the customer repaying by instalment. Our Alternative Bank review covers the bank as a whole; the home financing hub places AltRent alongside the home purchase products.
What The Alternative Bank publishes about AltRent
| Item | Published position |
|---|---|
| Who it is for | Salary earners and business owners; residential and commercial rent |
| Residential cap | N5,000,000 maximum rent value |
| Commercial cap | N2,500,000 maximum rent value |
| Repayment | Monthly instalments; the bank pays the landlord the annual rent upfront |
| Employee eligibility | Confirmed employees of reputable organisations |
| Business eligibility | Owners of registered businesses operating for at least three years |
| Property condition | Fully finished, habitable and relatively secure |
| Pricing | Not published: no markup, fee or total cost on the page |
| Contract | Not named on the page |
| Tenor | Not stated beyond 'monthly'; the rent being annual implies up to 12 months |
That is a short list for a credit product, and the silences matter more than the statements. There is no annual percentage figure, no processing fee, no insurance or takaful requirement, no statement of whether a deposit is needed, and no example instalment. By comparison the bank's AltBiz page for small business finance does publish a markup of 15.5% per annum, a 20% commitment deposit and a 3% insurance cost per annum, which shows the bank is willing to print pricing when it chooses to. Treat the absence on the AltRent page as a prompt to ask, not as a sign the product is cheap.
Who qualifies and what you must bring
The bank's published requirements split by applicant type. Every applicant needs a Bank Verification Number, a six-month bank statement and a rent invoice from the landlord addressed to The Alternative Bank, which is the document that lets the bank pay the landlord directly rather than hand you cash. The bank also says it reviews the applicant's credit history, so a clean record at the credit bureaux is part of the test.
- Salary earners: BVN, six months of bank statements, and an employment or confirmation letter. 'Confirmed' is the operative word; probationary staff are unlikely to pass.
- Business owners: BVN, six months of statements, CAC registration certificate, memorandum and articles of association where the business is a company, tax identification number, and a board resolution for a limited company authorising the facility. The business must have been operating for at least three years.
- The property: a rent invoice addressed to the bank, and a property that is finished and habitable. The bank does not say whether it inspects, but the wording suggests it reserves the right.
- The landlord: paid directly by the bank. If your landlord insists on cash or refuses to issue an invoice to a bank, AltRent will not work for that tenancy.
The three-step process the bank describes is apply, bank review, repay monthly. The application sits on the AltRent page and in the bank's app; the bank's contact lines are 02017000555 and 02018889090 with USSD on *5050#. An existing relationship helps: the bank's AltBiz page requires a one-month relationship before business finance, and while AltRent does not state the same, opening a current account first and running your salary through it for a few months is the obvious way to pass the six-month statement test on the bank's own records. The Alternative Bank provider page lists the accounts.
The Shariah structure, and what to ask
Rent is payment for the use of a property, which in fiqh is a usufruct, not a good. A bank cannot buy 'rent' from a landlord and sell it on by Murabaha the way it buys a car. The compliant structures for rent finance are therefore different, and the AltRent page does not say which one it uses. The cleanest is an Ijarah chain: the bank leases the property from the landlord for the year, paying the annual rent, and sub-leases it to you for the same year at a higher monthly rental, so the bank's profit is the difference between what it paid and what you pay, earned by owning the usufruct for a moment and passing it on. A second structure treats the bank's payment as a service (ujrah-based) arrangement in which the bank pays the landlord on your behalf and charges an agreed fee. A third, which would be problematic, is a disguised loan: the bank pays the landlord, and you repay the amount plus a percentage, with nothing actually leased or sold. That is riba with extra paperwork.
The Alternative Bank operates under the oversight of a published Advisory Committee of Experts, whose members, including Abdulkader Thomas, Abubakar Muhammad Musa and Abdurraheem Ahmad Sayi, are listed on the bank's site, so the product will have been approved under one of the compliant structures. You are entitled to know which. Ask three questions before signing: what is the contract called (Ijarah, service Ijarah, Wakalah with ujrah); what is the total amount I will pay, in naira, over the term; and does the amount change if I pay late or early. A fixed total that does not increase on late payment, with any late charge going to charity rather than the bank, is the signature of a genuine Islamic contract. Our is it halal hub covers how to read a non-interest contract.
What it costs: a template, since the bank does not say
With no published markup we cannot give you AltRent's price. We can give you the arithmetic to fill in. Take a Lagos rent of N3,000,000 a year, inside the N5 million residential cap. Spread over 12 months with no bank profit at all, the instalment would be N250,000 a month. Whatever the bank's profit is, it will be added to the N3,000,000 to give a total facility amount, and that total divided by the number of months is your instalment. Ask the bank for the total facility amount in naira; dividing by twelve tells you the instalment, and subtracting N3,000,000 tells you the cost of the finance. Then compare that cost with the alternatives below, not with a bank's percentage, because percentages on a one-year facility can hide fees.
A sanity check: the bank's AltBiz small business facility publishes a 15.5% per annum markup plus a 3% insurance cost, which is the only pricing The Alternative Bank prints for a comparable short-tenor product. We make no claim that AltRent is priced the same; it is simply the published yardstick from the same bank, and if your AltRent quote is far from it, ask why.
AltRent against the alternatives
| Route | How it works | Halal status | Practical limit |
|---|---|---|---|
| AltRent | Bank pays the landlord the annual rent; you repay monthly | Compliant if structured as Ijarah or a service contract; confirm the contract | N5 million residential, N2.5 million commercial; confirmed employment or three-year-old business |
| Employer salary advance | Employer pays rent or advances salary; deducted from pay | Halal if no interest is charged; an administrative fee is acceptable | Depends entirely on the employer; often one to three months' salary |
| Cooperative society loan | Members' pool lends against your savings and a guarantor | Depends on the cooperative; many charge interest, some charge a flat fee | Usually a multiple of your contributions; see our cooperative guide |
| Lotus Bank salary account finance | Payday and Murabaha finance for salary account holders, generally capped around a third of salary | Halal; Murabaha and Ijarah contracts | Lotus publishes goods and lifestyle finance rather than rent specifically; ask the branch |
| Loan apps | Short-tenor cash with a monthly rate | Interest; not permissible | Small sums, high cost, and the rates compound |
| Family Qard | Interest-free loan from relatives | Halal | Depends on goodwill; document it to avoid inheritance disputes |
AltRent's real competitor is the cooperative, because cooperatives in Nigerian workplaces routinely lend rent money against a guarantor at a flat charge. Whether yours is halal depends on how that charge is structured, which our cooperative societies article works through. The loan apps are not a competitor on Shariah grounds at all, and their pricing is covered in are loan apps halal. For the Lotus route, the bank's salary account page lists payday finance products for holders and its Lifestyle facility (Murabaha, up to 33% of salary, up to 36 months, zero facility and processing fees) finances goods rather than rent; the Lotus Bank provider page has the account details, and Jaiz Bank is the other bank worth asking for a personal finance quote.
Risks and fine print to watch
- Job loss during the year. The rent has already been paid to the landlord, so you still owe the bank the instalments. Ask what happens on default: a compliant contract may reschedule without increasing the amount, but the bank can still pursue the debt.
- The landlord relationship. Because the bank pays the landlord directly against an invoice, the landlord must be willing to deal with a bank. Some are not, particularly for older properties with informal tenancies.
- Renewal. AltRent is for one tenancy year. Next year you apply again, and the bank's appetite may have changed. Do not assume a rolling facility.
- Takaful or insurance. The AltBiz facility charges a 3% per annum insurance cost; the AltRent page does not mention one. Ask whether any insurance is added and whether it is takaful.
- Early settlement. In an Ijarah structure you have agreed a year's rentals; ask whether the bank rebates part of its profit if you settle early. There is no rule that it must.
- Caps. N5 million residential rules out much of Ikoyi, Victoria Island, Lekki Phase 1 and Maitama. The product is for mid-market rents.
Verdict
AltRent is a genuinely useful product for the salaried Nigerian Muslim who faces the annual rent demand and refuses the loan apps. It is bank-sized, the landlord is paid directly, the caps cover mid-market rents in the big cities, and it comes from a bank with a published Shariah committee. Its weakness is disclosure: no price, no contract name and no example instalment on the page. Apply, but treat the offer letter as the product. Insist on seeing the contract type, the total naira cost and the default terms in writing, compare the cost of finance with what your workplace cooperative would charge, and walk away from anything that reads like a loan plus a percentage. If the quote is fair, it beats every interest-bearing route and most informal ones. Compare it with the other non-interest banks' personal finance on the bank accounts hub.
Facts checked against altbank.ng and lotusbank.com on 22 September 2026.
Frequently asked questions
What is AltRent?
AltRent is The Alternative Bank's rent finance product. The bank pays your landlord the annual rent in one upfront payment and you repay the bank in monthly instalments. It covers residential rent up to N5 million and commercial rent up to N2.5 million.
Who can apply for AltRent?
Confirmed employees of organisations the bank considers reputable, and owners of registered businesses that have operated for at least three years. You need a BVN, six months of bank statements, an employment letter or company documents, and a rent invoice from the landlord addressed to the bank.
Is AltRent halal?
It is offered by a non-interest bank with a published Advisory Committee of Experts, so it will have been approved under a compliant structure, most likely an Ijarah or service contract. The page does not name the contract, so ask for it and for a fixed total cost in naira that does not rise on late payment.
How much does AltRent cost?
The bank does not publish a markup, fee or example instalment for AltRent. Ask for the total facility amount; dividing it by the number of months gives your instalment, and subtracting the rent gives the cost of finance. The bank's AltBiz business facility publishes a 15.5% per annum markup, which is the only comparable figure it prints.
Does the bank pay the landlord directly?
Yes. The rent invoice must be addressed to The Alternative Bank, and the bank pays the annual rent to the landlord upfront. You do not receive cash, which is part of what keeps the structure compliant.
Compare providers in your state
See side-by-side comparisons of Shariah-compliant products, or let our matcher recommend the best options for your situation.
What happens if I lose my job during an AltRent facility?
You still owe the remaining instalments, because the landlord has already been paid. A compliant contract should not increase the amount you owe for lateness, but the bank can reschedule and pursue the debt. Ask about default and rescheduling terms before you sign.
