How do property portals sell leads to developers and agents?
Portals mostly sell visibility, and the enquiries that visibility brings. You pay for a package that places your listing or project higher or more prominently, and interested buyers contact you through the portal. Here is how the three largest describe it on their own pages:
- 99acres lists dealer and builder plans on its advertising page: Banners, Featured Listing (“guaranteed prominence and exposure in preferred locality”), Featured Project and Project Gallery (both described as products “for getting new booking buyer leads for the primary clients”), and a Premium Plan from ₹899.
- MagicBricks leads its advertise with us page with “Guaranteed Visibility | Maximum Buyer Attention | Better Responses”, sells packages for individuals, agents and builders, and offers a call from its sales team.
- Housing.com says on its about page that it caters to “homeowners, home seekers, landlords, developers, and real estate brokers” and offers “advertising, marketing, sales solutions for real estate developers”.
Portals also sell launch campaigns and banners to developers, and 99acres shows testimonials from large developers about launches, so they clearly work for some projects. But note what is sold: visibility and responses. 99acres says so itself: “The search ranking and increase in responses are based on historical data from upgraded plans and not an indication of assured benefits of upgrading.” That is where the portal’s job ends and yours begins.
As listed on each page: 99acres, 9 October 2025; Housing.com, 1 October 2026; MagicBricks, 19 October 2026. Packages change; confirm the current list with the portal.
What is the difference between shared and exclusive leads?
An exclusive lead is an enquiry only you receive. A shared lead is one where the same buyer is also in touch with other sellers, either because the lead was passed to several advertisers or because the buyer enquired on several listings. On a portal, a buyer searching a locality sees many projects side by side and can contact several in a few minutes, so your enquiry may be one of several that evening. That is our reading of how portal search pages are laid out, not a portal’s statement.
Leads from your own ad and landing page are exclusive in the first sense: nobody else receives them. The buyer may still be comparing projects, but they enquired about yours, on a page that only shows yours.
Ask the portal in writing: “If a buyer responds to my listing, does anyone else receive that buyer’s details?” It depends on the product, so do not assume either way.
What does running your own Google Ads and landing page involve?
You pay Google for clicks from people searching for things like a project type in a locality, send them to a landing page about your project, and collect enquiries there. You decide the keywords, areas, budget, message and form, and every enquiry is yours. Your ad still appears next to competitors’ ads on the search results page; the difference is that the page it leads to shows only your project.
- Setup: a campaign, a landing page with the RERA details, a form with WhatsApp consent, and tracking. Days to weeks, not minutes.
- Management: someone has to watch search terms, cut waste and adjust bids every week, especially in the first month.
- Ad spend: paid to Google from your own account, separate from any agency fee.
- Compliance: you are responsible for your ad and page meeting RERA rules (see RERA rules for both).
Portal leads vs own ads: side-by-side comparison
| Factor | Portal packages | Own Google Ads |
|---|---|---|
| Time to first enquiry | Fast once the listing is live | Slower: campaign and page must be built and approved |
| Effort and control | Listing photos and details, within the portal’s format | Ad management, landing page and tracking; full control of ad and page |
| Buyer intent | High: they are on a property site | High for specific searches; depends on the keywords chosen |
| Is the buyer comparing others? | Usually, on the same results screen | Yes, on the search results page; but your landing page shows only your project |
| Who owns the audience | The portal; you rent access | You own your enquiries and data |
| How you pay | Package fee by city, product and duration | Ad spend per click to Google, plus setup and management |
| When you stop paying | Enquiries stop | Enquiries stop, but the page, data and what you learned stay with you |
When does each option make sense?
- You are a channel partner or small developer with units across projects and no one to run ads.
- You need enquiries this week, for a resale or ready-to-move unit.
- Buyers search your locality by name on portals.
- You want to test demand before building your own campaign.
- You are launching a registered project and want enquiries only you receive.
- You have a clear buyer, budget band and location to target.
- You want to learn which messages and areas produce site visits, and keep it.
- Someone can call every enquiry within minutes.
If nobody can call leads quickly, neither option will work well. Fix that first; it costs nothing in ad spend.
What does a hybrid approach look like?
Run both, and compare them on the same measure. The point is not to pick a winner on day one, but to let your own numbers decide where next month’s money goes.
- Put every enquiry, from portals and from your ads, into one sheet or CRM, with the source tagged.
- Call every enquiry with the same speed and the same qualifying questions, whatever the source.
- Track each one through to visit done and booking.
- After four to eight weeks, compare cost per site visit by source, including the portal fee, your ad spend and management fees.
- Shift budget towards the source with the lower cost per visit done, and keep a small test running on the other.
Our lead-to-appointment calculator helps with step 4: enter spend and your conversion rates for each source and compare the cost per site visit.
What RERA rules apply to portal listings and your own ads?
The same rules apply to both. Under the RERA Act, 2016 (India Code), an advertisement is any notice or publicity in any medium (Section 2(b)), so a Google ad, a landing page, a portal listing and a WhatsApp creative are all covered.
- Section 3(1): no advertising, booking or selling of a project that must be registered until it is. This is why “pre-launch” campaigns are risky.
- Section 11(2): the promoter’s ads must mention the authority’s website address prominently and include the registration number.
- Sections 9(5) and 10(a): a registered agent quotes their own registration number in every sale they facilitate, and must not facilitate sales of unregistered projects.
- Penalties: up to 10% of the project’s estimated cost for breaking Section 3 (Section 59(1)); up to 5% for breaking any other provision, including Section 11(2) (Section 61); for agents, ₹10,000 a day while a default continues, up to 5% of the unit’s cost (Section 62).
Maharashtra adds a QR code: MahaRERA Orders 46/2023 and 46A/2023 require it next to the registration number and website on every ad from 1 August 2023, with a penalty of ₹10,000 to ₹50,000 under Section 63 (summary of the orders; MahaRERA).
Telangana shows how strictly this is read. In June 2026 TG RERA fined Fortune Infra Developers ₹7.59 lakh after a newspaper ad for its registered Fortune Butterfly City project left out the registration number and statutory details. The ad was placed by one of its plot purchasers, not by the developer; the authority held the promoter responsible regardless of who issued it, and ordered it to send written instructions to all buyers. In the same report, SLN Infra was fined ₹10.77 lakh for advertising an unregistered villa project and ordered to stop all sales and marketing (Deccan Chronicle, 29 June 2026; TG RERA).
Our checklist for every real estate ad, listing and landing page:
- Project RERA registration number on the page, above the fold, in clear text.
- The state RERA authority’s website address next to it.
- A QR code where the state requires one, such as Maharashtra.
- For channel partners: your own agent registration number as well.
- The same project name in the ad, the landing page and the RERA record.
- No offers, prices or amenities that are not in the registered project details or the agreement.
- No advertising before registration is granted, and written ad rules for anyone else who advertises the project.
Not legal advice. This section summarises public law and public reports for marketers. State orders change, so check your authority’s current circulars, or a lawyer, before launch.
Where does Aglocom fit?
We set up the own-ads side: one Google Ads campaign, a RERA-ready landing page, an instant reply and routing for every enquiry, site visits booked with reminders, and a weekly cost-per-visit report, with your portal leads tagged in the same sheet. We do not sell portal packages and earn nothing from either choice. Real estate is new for us, so we run it as a fixed-price 30-day pilot: see real estate lead generation for what is included and the price.
Frequently asked questions
Are 99acres or MagicBricks leads worth it for builders?
They can be, especially for quick enquiries on ready or resale units, for big launches, or where buyers search a locality by name on portals. Judge them the way you judge any source: by cost per site visit and cost per booking, not by the number of responses.
Are portal leads shared with other builders or agents?
A buyer on a portal usually sees many projects on one screen and can contact several, so in practice your enquiry is often one of many. Whether a portal passes the same enquiry to more than one paying advertiser depends on the product, so ask the portal in writing.
How much do property portal packages cost?
Most packages are priced by city, product and duration and quoted by the portal’s sales team; 99acres shows a starting price for some products, such as its Premium Plan. Ask for the fee, duration and exactly what is included, in writing.
Is running our own Google Ads cheaper than buying portal leads?
Not always. Own ads add setup, management and ad spend, and take longer to start. Compare the two on cost per site visit over the same few weeks, with every cost included, before deciding.
Do we need a landing page if we run Google Ads for a project?
We recommend one. A landing page about one project, with the RERA registration number, price band, location and a short form, filters out poor-fit buyers and lets you track which ads produce site visits.
Can we run portal listings and our own ads at the same time?
Yes, and for most developers we suggest it. Put all enquiries in one sheet or CRM with the source tagged, call them all the same way, and compare cost per site visit by source after four to eight weeks.