Glossary
What is the lead-to-sale conversion rate in real estate?
The lead-to-sale conversion rate is the share of leads that made it to a closed sale. You calculate it by dividing the number of sales by the number of leads in the same cohort. In our experience, about 2% is the global benchmark, large cities and strong projects can reach about 5%, and resort destinations run 1-2%.
An example with a developer's numbers
A project got 1,500 leads and closed 5 sales: a 0.33% conversion rate. The overall number is built from the conversion at each stage:
| Step | Count | Conversion |
|---|---|---|
| Lead → first contact | 1,500 → 450 | 30% |
| Contact → qualified | 450 → 135 | 30% |
| Qualified → meeting | 135 → 40 | ≈ 30% |
| Meeting → sale | 40 → 5 | 12.5% |
If you raise first contact to 60% and the other stages hold, you get about 10 sales and a 0.67% conversion rate. The first stage is the easiest place to double overall conversion.
What conversion rate is normal in real estate
| Market | Lead → sale, in our experience |
|---|---|
| Global benchmark | about 2% |
| Large cities, strong projects | about 5% |
| Resort destinations | 1-2% |
| Highest we've seen | 10% |
On projects we've run, lead-to-sale conversion grew from 0.5% to 4% after we worked on first contact, qualification and sales team oversight.
Where conversion gets lost most often
Most often at first contact. In an InsideSales.com study of 8,742 companies, 39% of leads got no contact at all. According to the InsideSales Lead Response Management study (2007), contacting a lead within 5 minutes instead of 30 makes you 100 times more likely to reach them and 21 times more likely to qualify them. After that, look at the stage with the worst conversion in your own funnel.
Calculate conversion by cohort: March leads, and how many of them had bought by June. March sales divided by March leads, with a deal cycle of several months, gives you a random number.
FAQ
Why is our conversion rate below 1%?
Usually because of first contact: the team simply doesn't get to talk to most of the leads in time. Check how many leads had a real conversation this month, and how long it took.