A decade ago, an Australian Muslim who wanted to invest without touching riba had two realistic options: direct property or a co-operative like ICFAL. In 2026 the shelf is genuinely wide. There are five halal ETFs listed on the ASX, a registered Islamic mortgage income fund that has paid monthly distributions since 2009, Shariah-screened superannuation from two groups, managed portfolios from $5,000, and an app that lets you start with $100. The problem has shifted from scarcity to selection.
This guide maps everything available to Australian retail investors as of August 5, 2026. Every rate, fee and fund detail below comes from provider disclosures we verified on that date. Where a provider does not publish a number, we say so rather than guessing.
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What makes an investment halal
Two filters, applied in order. First, the business itself must be permissible: no conventional banking or insurance, alcohol, gambling, tobacco, pork, weapons, adult entertainment. Second, the company's finances must pass ratio screens, most commonly the AAOIFI standards, which cap interest-bearing debt and interest-generating investments relative to the company's size, and cap how much revenue can come from non-compliant sources. A company that passes both is investable; small amounts of incidental impure income are then purified by donating that fraction of your dividends to charity. Our guide to how Shariah screening works covers the mechanics in detail.
Beyond screening, structure matters. Bonds and term deposits fail regardless of the issuer because the return is interest. The halal replacements are sukuk (asset-based certificates), Islamic income funds built on property finance, and profit-sharing arrangements. Cash savings are a separate problem this guide touches only briefly.
The ASX route: five halal ETFs
All five listed halal funds in Australia come from one manager, Hejaz, with Equity Trustees as the independent responsible entity and certification from the Australian National Imams Council's Shariah board, audited semi-annually. You buy them through any ASX broker, or from $100 through Hejaz's Halal Money app at a flat A$10 per trade.
| ETF (ASX code) | What it holds | Fees and costs (PDS) | Listed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hejaz Equities Fund (ISLM) | Global equities: TSMC, BYD, AMD | 1.89% p.a. + 0.31% transaction | Oct 2022 |
| Hejaz Sukuk (SKUK) | Sovereign and corporate sukuk | 1.33% p.a. | Nov 2023 |
| Hejaz Property (HJZP) | Australian and global REITs | 1.50% p.a. + 0.15% transaction | 2021 registration, ASX-traded |
| Hejaz High Income (HJHI) | Dividend-paying global large caps | 1.10% p.a. + 0.15% transaction | Apr 2024 |
| Hejaz High Innovation (HHIF) | Technology and innovation names | 1.55% p.a. | Apr 2024 |
Performance to 31 May 2026, per Hejaz's published table: ISLM returned 16.34% over one year and 11.56% p.a. since its October 2022 inception. SKUK returned -3.91% over one year (2.63% p.a. since inception), a useful reminder that sukuk carry duration and currency risk and are not a cash substitute. HJHI returned 3.04% over one year. Hejaz publishes no performance for HJZP and HHIF in that table. Fees are in the PDS rather than on the website, which is a disclosure gap worth knowing about before you assume ETFs are cheap: at 1.10% to 1.89%, these cost several times more than mainstream index ETFs. The full breakdown is in our Hejaz ETF review.
Registered funds: the MCCA option
MCCA, operating since 1989, runs Australia's first Shariah-compliant registered retail mortgage fund. The MCCA Income Fund (established 2009) pools investor money into Islamic property finance contracts secured by registered first mortgages, and has paid distributions monthly since inception. Minimum investment is $1,000. Returns for the year to 30 June 2025: 4.28%, a whisker under its 4.30% AusBond Bank Bill benchmark, after beating that benchmark in each of the four prior years. The fund is Big-4 audited every six months and publishes a dedicated fatwa. It is not a term deposit and returns are not guaranteed, but as a low-volatility halal income sleeve it has few peers.
MCCA also runs a Property Fund where investors approve specific single-property sub-schemes, typically from $50,000. Its one completed sub-scheme returned 18.83% total over 2016-18 (11.36% p.a.), but that is a single data point, and money is locked until each property sells.
Managed portfolios and co-operatives
Meezan Wealth offers the Meezan Islamic Growth Portfolio from $5,000: a managed account targeting CPI plus 4.5% over six-plus years at a 1.35% p.a. management fee, where you beneficially own the underlying securities rather than units in a pool. Screening runs on AAOIFI standards through IdealRatings with SRA Consulting as the named Shariah board, and the purification methodology is published in unusual detail, executed quarterly.
ICFAL, the member-owned co-operative running since 1998, offers share-based memberships from $500 for active membership. Its published performance table (retrieved August 5, 2026) shows General and Children memberships returning 6.5% p.a. over five and ten years and 3.8% over one year, net of fees and tax, with quarterly distributions. The trade-off is structural: co-op shares sit outside the registered managed investment scheme regime, so there is no PDS-level disclosure, and redemptions run through the co-op's own process.
Superannuation: do not skip this
For most Australians, super is the largest pool of investable money they will ever control, and the default fund almost certainly holds bonds, bank shares and interest-bearing cash. Two groups offer Shariah-compliant retail super: Salaam (formerly Crescent Wealth), operating inside the Russell Investments Master Trust with Dar Al Sharia auditing annually, and Hejaz, whose Islamic Super and Pension was paused to new members at our August 2026 verification while the group reviews the offering. Meezan Wealth builds advised Shariah portfolios inside the Super Simplifier platform. The comparison deserves its own article, and has one: Hejaz vs Salaam super. Self-managed funds have further options covered in our halal SMSF guide.
What is still missing in Australia
- No halal savings account pays a meaningful return; Islamic term-deposit-style products exist but the shelf is thin
- No Australian-listed gold product carries published Shariah certification in our database
- No APRA-licensed takaful insurer exists; Najmaa Mutual operates as a discretionary mutual instead - see our takaful state of play
- Broad, cheap halal index ETFs comparable to mainstream index funds have not arrived; every listed option is active and priced accordingly
How to actually decide
Start from your time horizon, not the product list. Money you need within three years should not be in equities at all; the honest halal options are the MCCA Income Fund's monthly-distribution profile or simply holding cash and accepting no return. Money with a seven-plus year horizon belongs mostly in screened equities - ISLM or a managed portfolio - with sukuk or income funds as the stabiliser. Somewhere in between, blend. Our beginner's guide with worked $1k, $10k and $100k portfolios does this concretely.
Then check governance before returns. Every product above publishes who certifies it: ANIC for the Hejaz ETFs, Amanie Advisors and a named local panel including the Grand Mufti of Australia for MCCA, Dar Al Sharia for Salaam, SRA Consulting for Meezan, and a named internal board chaired by Dr Mufti Imran Usmani for ICFAL. If a product you find elsewhere names nobody, that silence is your answer.
Finally, mind the fees. Halal investing in Australia carries a real cost premium - roughly 1.1% to 1.9% on listed funds against a fraction of that for mainstream trackers. That premium buys screening, certification and purification. It is worth paying for compliance you cannot replicate yourself, but it compounds, so do not pay it twice by stacking managed products on top of each other.
Common questions, answered briefly
Is investing through a normal broker like CommSec or a low-cost app halal? The broker is a tool; the compliance question attaches to what you buy and how. A cash-funded purchase of a screened share or a certified ETF through any broker is fine. What breaks compliance at the broker layer: margin loans, interest paid on idle cash balances (switch it off or dispose of the interest), and derivatives. If your broker pays interest you cannot disable, sweep it out using the process in our interest disposal guide.
Do I need to purify returns from certified funds? Managed products generally handle purification at fund level - Salaam and Meezan Wealth publish their processes - but practices differ in transparency, and direct shareholdings are always your own responsibility. When in doubt, ask the manager in writing; a certified fund should answer easily.
What about the money I have already invested in non-compliant assets? Exit deliberately rather than instantly if instant means selling into a crash, keep any gains question for a scholar (positions differ on cleansing historical growth), and redirect the proceeds into the screened options above. The obligation that matters most is the forward-looking one.
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.
How much of this needs professional advice? The product selection above is researchable by any careful reader. Where licensed advice earns its fee: six-figure portfolios, tax structuring across entities, super transitions near retirement, and wholesale funds with lock-ins. Advice fees are a cost like any other - weigh them against the size of the mistake they prevent.
The tools on our investing hub can help you shortlist, and the how to invest halal walkthrough covers account setup step by step. All figures verified August 5, 2026 against provider disclosures; always read the PDS before committing money.