Replication of conventional financial products in a Shari’a-compliant way reflects upon financial needs of the users of banking services. In the West, for example, those who buy houses by getting interest-based mortgages do not in general deem interest payments exploitative, because of expectation of capital gains. Needless to say that the monthly mortgage payments hurt owners of mortgaged houses but a majority of them still wish to continue because the perceived capital gains outweigh the harms inflicted by interest payments. This shouldn’t, however, be presented as an argument in favour of permissibility or legitimacy of interest. A model of cooperative housing societies was definitely a better alternative to mortgages, but Islamic banks opted for an easy solution of replicating conventional mortgages. Despite their utility, Islamic mortgages do not offer a distinctly different alternative to conventional mortgages.