No Nigerian bank will tell you on its website what its home finance costs. So this article does the arithmetic the product pages avoid, using only published terms (retrieved August 4, 2026) and clearly labeled benchmarks. Two price points, because they bracket the serious end of the market: a N50 million house, roughly what a solid family home costs in many good non-premium locations, and a N100 million house, which is mid-market Lagos or central Abuja territory.
Ready to compare halal options?
First hurdle: the cash you need before any bank moves
| Product | Equity rule | Cash needed on N50m | Cash needed on N100m |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jaiz Home Finance | Minimum 20% | N10,000,000 | N20,000,000 |
| LOTUS Homes (financing page) | 30% equity | N15,000,000 | N30,000,000 |
| LOTUS Homes (retail page) | 20% equity | N10,000,000 | N20,000,000 |
| AltBank Home Finance | Not published; property cap N80m | Ask at branch | Not eligible (exceeds N80m cap) |
Note the AltBank row: its published property value cap is N80,000,000, so the N100 million house is simply outside the product. And note the Lotus rows: the bank's own pages disagree on whether you need 20% or 30% down, a conflict our LOTUS Homes review covers in detail. On top of equity, budget for perfection of title, valuation, legal fees and takaful; none of the three banks publishes a fee schedule, so demand the full list in the offer letter.
Second hurdle: the monthly buyout, before any rent or markup
Every halal structure has a component that is simply you acquiring the asset: buying the bank's share at Jaiz, repaying the Murabaha price at Lotus. Before any profit element, that acquisition alone divides the financed amount by the number of months. This floor is worth staring at, because it is the part no negotiation can reduce.
| Scenario | Financed amount | Tenor | Acquisition-only monthly floor |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jaiz, N50m house, 20% down | N40,000,000 | 84 months (7yr max) | about N476,000 |
| Jaiz, N100m house, 20% down | N80,000,000 | 84 months | about N952,000 |
| Lotus, N50m house, 70% financed | N35,000,000 | 240 months (20yr page) | about N146,000 |
| Lotus, N50m house, 70% financed | N35,000,000 | 120 months (10yr page) | about N292,000 |
| Lotus, N100m house, 70% financed | N70,000,000 | 240 months | about N292,000 |
| Lotus, N100m house, 70% financed | N70,000,000 | 120 months | about N583,000 |
| AltBank, N50m house (equity unknown) | up to N50m | 120 months (10yr max) | up to about N417,000 |
These floors assume even amortization and exclude every profit, rent, takaful and fee element. Real schedules will differ, but the comparison already tells you the market's central truth: tenor is destiny. The same N100 million house needs roughly N952,000 a month of pure acquisition at Jaiz's seven years, versus roughly N292,000 at Lotus's twenty, if the twenty is honored for your profile.
Third hurdle: the profit element nobody publishes
Now the honest part. Neither Jaiz nor Lotus nor AltBank publishes a rental rate or markup for home finance. What Nigeria does publish, as of our review, are these reference points: the Federal Government's own Ijarah sukuk paid investors a 19.75% rental rate on its May 2025 issue; Jaiz's only fully priced retail product, EnerJaiz solar finance, carries a 28-30% per annum markup; The Alternative Bank's published SME facilities run 15.5% flat (AltBiz) to 30% per annum (AltLease). Those are not home finance rates, and we will not pretend they are. They are the walls of the room the negotiation happens in. When a bank cannot lend to the sovereign's own risk curve below roughly 20%, retail home finance priced meaningfully below that would be surprising.
To see what that environment implies, take one clearly labeled illustration, not a bank quote: if the rent on a diminishing partnership were set near the sovereign benchmark of 19.75% on the bank's outstanding share, the first-year rent on N40 million of bank share would be roughly N7.9 million, around N658,000 a month, declining every month as you buy the bank out. Stack that on the N476,000 acquisition floor and a N50 million house through a 7-year structure plausibly demands well over N1 million a month at the start. That is the scale of commitment to walk in expecting; the bank's actual schedule, which you must demand in writing, is the only number that counts.
What this means by income level
- If your household clears N1.5-2 million monthly and has N10-20 million liquid: the N50 million house is financeable at any of the three banks; force all three to quote the same property and compare total repayment figures, not rates.
- If your household clears N700,000-1 million monthly: the N50 million house only works on a long tenor. Lotus's 20-year page is your negotiation; the 33% payment-to-income discipline Lotus applies elsewhere on its shelf suggests they will size you conservatively anyway.
- If the N100 million house is the goal: AltBank is out by its own cap, Jaiz demands seven-figure monthlies, and Lotus's long tenor is realistically the only structure that fits salaried cash flow. The equity alone is N20-30 million.
- If none of that math fits: you are the majority, and the incremental path is not a consolation prize. Our incremental building playbook shows how to compress it with halal tools.
The costs that hide outside the schedule
Takaful on the property is required or arranged at these banks and is a real recurring cost; Lotus describes its rates only as low. Title perfection and legal fees in Nigeria are significant and vary by state; no bank publishes them, and they land on you. Salary domiciliation is effectively part of the price at Jaiz and Lotus: your income banks with them for years. And early exit deserves a written answer before you sign, because a fixed-price Murabaha over 20 years embeds two decades of margin; whether Lotus rebates any of it on early settlement is policy, not contract, and nothing on the public site answers it.
The bottom line
A N50 million house the halal way needs roughly N10-15 million in cash and a monthly capacity somewhere between N300,000 and over N1 million depending entirely on tenor. A N100 million house doubles the cash and pushes the short-tenor structures past N1 million a month before rent. Nothing here is priced for the median salary, and pretending otherwise would be the exact fluff this site exists to avoid. The products are real, structurally sound and reviewed in depth in our complete guide; the arithmetic is what it is. Go in with the numbers, and make the banks compete on the one figure that matters: total repayment, in writing.
Frequently asked questions
Why do you use the FGN sukuk rate as a benchmark instead of quoting bank rates?
Because the banks publish nothing, and we will not invent numbers. The sovereign sukuk rental rate (19.75% at the May 2025 issue) is the cleanest public signal of what riba-free naira funding costs in this economy: it is what investors demanded to fund the federal government itself through an Ijarah structure. A bank financing your house takes more risk than the sovereign takes, over longer tenors, so treating the sukuk curve as a floor for your expectations is arithmetic honesty, not pessimism. When your offer letter arrives, you will have a real number; until then, this is the disciplined way to budget.
Do these products allow joint applications with a spouse?
None of the three banks publishes joint-application rules on the pages we reviewed, so ask directly. The underwriting logic matters more than the form: products sized against domiciled salary and capped near a third of net pay will treat a documented second income as real capacity if the bank can underwrite it. For a household where both spouses earn formally, a joint structure can be the difference between qualifying and not; get the bank's policy, and how default and title work in a joint arrangement, in writing.
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.
Should I stretch for the house now or save a bigger deposit first?
In this market, deposit size is the most powerful lever you control. Every naira of extra equity shrinks the financed amount that carries the (expensive, invisible) profit element, and at 20-30% minimums, the difference between scraping the floor and bringing 40% transforms both the monthly and the total cost. The counterweight is property inflation while you save. The honest framework: if your target area's prices are rising faster than your savings rate plus the markup you would avoid, buying earlier wins; otherwise the bigger deposit wins. Run it with real local prices, not vibes.