The Waqf Fund acquires UK retail property to fund charitable work for generations to come

MANCHESTER, United Kingdom, Sept. 15, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — The Waqf Fund announced a key real estate acquisition as a charity endowment. The fund has completed the £1.9 million purchase of a prime freehold retail unit on Solihull High Street, generating £150,000 in annual rental income that will directly fund life-saving humanitarian projects every year.

Located in one of the most affluent retail catchments in the West Midlands, adjacent to the Touchwood shopping centre, the pedestrianised High Street unit is let to a rapidly expanding Danish homeware retailer. The tenant trades from more than 70 UK stores and opened its 400th global store in March 2026 after opening 22 new UK outlets during 2025 alone, accounting for a third of its total global openings that year.

This acquisition marks the fourth property secured by The Waqf Fund in under two years, bringing its overall UK property portfolio value to £5.6 million. Existing assets in the portfolio include prime commercial properties in Stockport and Lingard Court, Congleton, all of which are consistently outperforming the fund’s target annual return of 7%.

Donors were invited to select which of thirteen charitable causes their share of the rental income would support, with the strongest response seen across Orphans, Clean Water, and ongoing charity initiatives.

The purchase operates under the Islamic financial charity framework of Waqf, an endowment model. Under this model, capital donations are permanently preserved in income-generating, compliant assets like real estate, while 100% of the ongoing yield is channelled directly into humanitarian projects indefinitely. Structurally, it closely mirrors the endowment funds used by Oxford and Cambridge colleges to finance their operations across centuries.

Morshed Alam, General Manager of The Waqf Fund, comments: “The acquisition of our Solihull High Street property is a terrific milestone for The Waqf Fund and our generous donor community. By pooling generous contributions, thousands of everyday donors now jointly own a piece of prime British commercial real estate that will generate £150,000 in sustainable charitable aid for generations to come.”

To learn more about The Waqf Fund, please visit https://waqf-fund.org/

Notes to Editor

Photo caption: Photo shows the mentioned prime freehold retail unit on Solihull High Street purchased by The Waqf Fund.

About The Waqf Fund

The Waqf Fund is a registered charity in England and Wales and a subsidiary of the British humanitarian charity Human Appeal. Human Appeal was established in 1991 as a registered and regulated UK charity that runs targeted aid relief programmes in collaboration with recognised global organisations such as the United Nations.

To learn more about The Waqf Fund, please visit https://waqf-fund.org/

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/dad08300-5200-4e16-8a64-80f3c82de263

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