Z
Zappio Team
AI & Real Estate Experts · 3 July 2026 · 11 min read
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Zappio Team
AI & Real Estate Experts · 3 July 2026 · 11 min read
Housing.com occupies a distinct position in India's real estate portal landscape. Owned by REA India, it has invested aggressively in product differentiation — 3D virtual tours, AI-assisted property matching, verified builder listings, and its "Express" lead product — to carve out significant market share in urban residential markets, particularly Mumbai MMR, Pune, Bangalore, and Hyderabad, while strengthening its position in the Delhi NCR corridor.
Despite these advantages, Housing.com leads suffer from the same fundamental conversion failure as every other portal when contacted by human BDR teams: the 31-minute average response time destroys the qualification window the portal's product sophistication worked to create. An AI Calling Agent integration eliminates this gap and raises Housing.com's portal ROI by 2.8–3.4× from the same advertising spend.
Housing.com's flagship lead product. The buyer has completed a verified phone number registration, used advanced filters to specify exact BHK, budget range, locality, and possession preference, shortlisted the developer's listing specifically, and in many cases engaged with the listing's virtual tour or floor plan viewer before submitting.
Express Leads are delivered with Housing.com's proprietary "Intent Score" — a platform-calculated score (0–100) reflecting the buyer's search behavior depth, portal engagement history, and profile completeness. Leads with Intent Score above 65 are Housing.com's highest-confidence category. Pricing: ₹1,400–₹3,200 per Express Lead depending on city, project tier, and BHK configuration.
Buyers who used Housing.com's PropWorth tool to get a valuation on their existing property — indicating they are considering selling or upgrading. These leads are warm on upgrade intent but may have longer decision timelines dependent on the current property sale. The qualification script should establish current property status before project-specific discussion.
Buyers who submitted general area/BHK enquiries without using advanced filters or Express shortlisting. Broader intent, lower specificity — higher volume, lower baseline qualification rate.
Leads generated through Housing.com's broker/CP network. Route to human BDR relationship management, not the AI buyer qualification script — same handling as MagicBricks CP leads.
Housing.com's Intent Score — delivered in the lead payload for Express Leads — is a direct input variable for AI Calling queue prioritization. Standard AI Calling deployments treat all leads with equal urgency. Express Leads with Intent Score above 65 warrant preferential treatment:
| Intent Score Range | AI Call Priority | Target Response Time | Script Approach |
|---|---|---|---|
| 80–100 (Very High Intent) | Critical — Queue A | < 45 seconds | Project-specific; advance to site visit offer in first 90 sec |
| 65–79 (High Intent) | Priority — Queue B | < 75 seconds | Enriched script; skip discovery for data already in payload |
| 45–64 (Medium Intent) | Standard — Queue C | < 120 seconds | Context-matched; confirm BHK and budget, then project presentation |
| < 45 (Lower Intent) | Routine — Queue D | < 180 seconds | Full discovery script; establish intent depth before project pitch |
| Not scored (Standard listing lead) | Standard — Queue C | < 120 seconds | Standard discovery script |
This tiered prioritization ensures that Housing.com's highest-value leads — the buyers who engaged most deeply with the portal before submitting — receive an AI call within 45 seconds while the qualification window is at maximum intensity.
Housing.com delivers lead data through its Developer Dashboard API and supports real-time webhook delivery for premium account holders. The integration follows the same middleware architecture as 99acres and MagicBricks, with Housing.com-specific payload handling.
Step 1 — Webhook configuration: Log in to Housing.com Developer Console → Lead Management → API Settings → Configure Webhook Endpoint URL. Provide your middleware endpoint URL and secret key for HMAC signature verification.
{
"source": "housing_com",
"lead_product": "express_lead",
"lead_id": "HSG_XXXXXXXXXX",
"submitted_at": "2026-07-03T18:42:11+05:30",
"intent_score": 78,
"buyer": {
"name": "Deepika Rao",
"mobile": "+91-90XXXXXXXX",
"email": "deepika.r@example.com",
"current_city": "Bangalore",
"target_city": "Hyderabad"
},
"requirement": {
"property_type": "Residential Apartment",
"bhk_type": "3BHK",
"budget_min": 8500000,
"budget_max": 12000000,
"possession_preference": "Within 2 years",
"purpose": "End use - self occupation",
"loan_required": true
},
"listing": {
"housing_listing_id": "HLST_XXXXXXX",
"project_name": "Prestige Financial District Phase 3",
"developer_id": "DEV_HSG_XXXXX",
"virtual_tour_viewed": true,
"floor_plan_downloaded": false,
"time_on_listing_seconds": 247
},
"channel": "mobile_app"
}Step 2 — Payload enrichment for AI script personalization: the Housing.com payload contains behavioral data unavailable from other portals — virtual_tour_viewed, time_on_listing_seconds, floor_plan_downloaded. This behavioral data personalizes the AI opening: a viewed virtual tour prompts the AI to reference it directly and offer a physical visit; an undownloaded floor plan prompts a WhatsApp offer; 4+ minutes on a listing is a strong engagement signal that justifies advancing to a booking offer faster than for lower-engagement listings.
Step 3 — Cross-city lead handling: the payload example above shows a buyer in Bangalore interested in Hyderabad. This cross-city signal changes the AI script significantly — the AI opening establishes whether the buyer is exploring as an investment or planning to relocate, which determines the qualification tree that follows: investment branch (yield, appreciation, payment plan flexibility) vs. relocation branch (possession timeline, connectivity, school zones).
Step 4 — AI call trigger with Intent Score routing: middleware reads the Intent Score and routes to the matching priority queue. The AI Calling Agent receives the enriched payload with Intent Score, behavioral signals, and cross-city flag — call initiated within 68 seconds of webhook receipt in typical deployments.
| Metric | Housing.com + Human BDR | Housing.com + AI Calling |
|---|---|---|
| Avg. speed-to-first-call | 31 minutes | 74 seconds |
| Express Lead contact rate | 47% | 91% |
| Standard Lead contact rate | 38% | 88% |
| After-hours lead coverage | 0% | 100% |
| Express Lead qualification rate | 41% (human) | 69% (AI) |
| Standard Lead qualification rate | 17% (human) | 38% (AI) |
| Site visits booked per 100 Express Leads | 14.2 | 33.6 |
| Site visits booked per 100 Standard Leads | 4.8 | 12.9 |
| Avg. time to site visit booking | 3.8 days | 0.8 days |
| Virtual tour-to-site-visit conversion | 19% | 34% |
| CRM field completion rate | 69% | 96% |
| Portal ROAS (revenue/Housing.com spend) | 76% | 261% |
The virtual tour-to-site-visit conversion jump (19% → 34%) is particularly notable. Housing.com's virtual tour feature pre-qualifies buyer interest in the project's design and layout — buyers who complete a virtual tour are already invested in the property. When the AI calls this buyer within 90 seconds and explicitly references their tour engagement, conversion to physical site visit is dramatically higher than when a human BDR calls 31 minutes later with no awareness of the buyer's tour activity.
Housing.com reports that 71% of its leads in 2026 originate from mobile app submissions rather than desktop/mobile web. Mobile app leads carry two characteristics that make sub-90-second AI response especially important:
To exploit this timing advantage, configure the AI Call trigger to fire 15–25 seconds after webhook receipt — rather than immediately — allowing the Housing.com push notification to land first and prime the buyer to expect developer contact.
Baseline assumptions: ₹2.5 lakh/month Housing.com spend (mix: 60% Express Leads at ₹2,000 CPL = 75 leads; 40% Standard at ₹550 CPL = 182 leads). Avg. commission ₹1.6 lakh/booking. AI Calling cost: ₹65,000/month.
Without AI Calling: Express: 75 × 41% qual × 22% SV booking = 6.76 site visits. Standard: 182 × 17% qual × 18% SV booking = 5.57 site visits. Total: 12.33 site visits → 1.11 bookings → ₹1.78 lakh revenue. ROI = (₹1.78L − ₹2.5L) ÷ ₹2.5L × 100 = −28.8%.
With AI Calling: Express: 75 × 69% qual × 33% SV booking = 17.07 site visits. Standard: 182 × 38% qual × 26% SV booking = 17.96 site visits. Total: 35.03 site visits → 3.15 bookings → ₹5.04 lakh revenue. ROI = (₹5.04L − ₹3.15L) ÷ ₹3.15L × 100 = 59.7%.
Same spend, ₹3.26 lakh more monthly revenue — payback in under 3 weeks
Without AI Calling, Housing.com generates negative ROI — the developer is losing money on portal spend. With AI Calling, the same spend generates 59.7% positive ROI. This is the most accurate representation of why so many developers describe Housing.com as "not working" — the portal's leads are not being contacted quickly enough to convert, creating a false signal that the lead quality is poor when the actual problem is the contact speed gap.
Disclaimer: Housing.com product features, lead tier specifications, Intent Score methodology, and API capabilities referenced in this article reflect platform documentation and developer account observations as of Q2 2026. Housing.com's product offerings and portal features evolve continuously — verify current lead product specifications, pricing, and API documentation with your Housing.com account manager. ROI calculations and qualification benchmarks are based on aggregate deployment data and will vary by project, city, developer listing quality, and market conditions.