TY - JOUR AB - Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to investigate Shariah compliant real estate development financing and investment in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC).Design/methodology/approach– In this paper, the authors employed desk research and survey to examine issues relating to Shariah compliant real estate development financing and investment. Following the desk research, 18 in‐depth interviews were conducted with senior executives of banks, real estate developers and consultants.Findings– Equity Shariah instruments are found to be in high demand by real estate investors, however they are rarely offered by Islamic banks. In addition, the survey results confirm that Islamic financiers tend to partner real estate companies through land acquisition to post construction, contrary to how conventional financiers operate, therefore reducing moral hazard issues.Research limitations/implications– As Shariah compliant real estate research and knowledge is limited, the authors faced a challenge in getting respondents who are familiar and willing to participate in the interview. Nevertheless, the 18 respondents gave adequate inputs to enable the authors to write the research paper.Practical implications– The paper includes challenges and implications for the future developments of Shariah compliant real estate development financing and investment.Originality/value– This paper provides the Shariah compliant perspective of real estate development financing and investment, where the current knowledge is very limited. VL - 30 IS - 2 SN - 1463-578X DO - 10.1108/14635781211206913 UR - https://doi.org/10.1108/14635781211206913 AU - Faishal Ibrahim Muhammad AU - Eng Ong Seow AU - Akinsomi Kola PY - 2012 Y1 - 2012/01/01 TI - Shariah compliant real estate development financing and investment in the Gulf Cooperation Council T2 - Journal of Property Investment & Finance PB - Emerald Group Publishing Limited SP - 175 EP - 197 Y2 - 2024/04/25 ER -