France's cold-calling ban: how estate agencies still find sellers

Law n° 2025-594 of 30 June 2025, in its article 13, rewrote the article. It now forbids canvassing by telephone, directly or through a third party, any consumer who has not first consented to commercial prospecting by that means. The burden of proving consent sits with the professional.

A seller who lists a flat on a portal acts as a private individual, which makes them a consumer under the text. Calling them to offer a mandate means contacting them "with a view to concluding a contract", the definition the DGCCRF uses in its 27 July 2026 sheet. Cold calling sellers is therefore covered, whatever portal the listing came from.

Agencies underestimate the last row. The Consumer Code states that any contract concluded with a consumer following unlawful telephone canvassing is void. For an agency, that contract is the mandate. MySweetImmo summed it up on 9 June 2026: a disputed mandate means a fragile sale and a threatened commission. The fine is the visible risk. The void mandate is the one that costs a sale.

Article R. 223-4 opens with a qualifier that settles the question: it applies "for the application of the fifth paragraph of article L. 223-1". That fifth paragraph is the one that bans canvassing outright for energy renovation and home adaptation. The decree's explanatory note, published in the Journal officiel of 25 July 2026, says the same: consumers may be called at their express request for those products and services, provided the callback happens quickly.

The DGCCRF sheet of 27 July 2026 files this callback under the question "In which fields is telephone canvassing totally banned?". Agencies that read "callbacks within five days are allowed" in a summary and apply it to their valuation requests are relying on an exception that does not concern them.

The consequence is concrete. A seller who fills in a "get your home valued" form does not automatically agree to be called. What makes the call safe is what the form contains, which is the next section. We are not lawyers: have your form checked by your legal adviser or your trade body.

The five items of article R. 223-1, applied to a valuation form:

• Who and why. The agency's name and the purpose, for example "to call you about the valuation and sale of your property".
• The choice. An empty checkbox the seller ticks themselves. They must be able to send the valuation request without ticking it.
• The duration. Stated plainly, one year at most. You can offer less.
• Withdrawal. How to withdraw consent, by means no harder than giving it. The decree states that an oral withdrawal during a call counts.
• The proof. A statement that the seller can obtain proof of their consent. Online access is allowed, without forcing them to create an account.

Two technical duties follow. The agency must archive, for three years, the text shown, the date and time of consent, and the agreed slot if the call falls outside legal hours (article R. 223-2). And the new article L. 223-2 requires informing anyone whose phone number you collect that commercial calls require their consent. A CRM that timestamps the checkbox and stores the exact wording does this work; a shared spreadsheet does it badly.

Mail and referrers deserve a note. Mail works if the list is lawful and targeted, for instance properties whose energy rating will restrict letting. Referrers work if the relationship is real and maintained. We cover what lasts in our guide on the data an estate agency should own.

The work has little to do with a shop window. A site that brings in sellers answers the questions they actually ask in your area: price per square metre on their street, the time sales take, what the energy performance certificate changes for their property, which documents to prepare. One page per question, answered in full, with your own figures. A three-paragraph "estate agency + town" page answers none of them.

Assistants add a constraint. Google documents a "query fan-out" mechanism: its AI answers split a question into several searches before responding. A page that fully answers one sub-question has a chance of being used. We wrote a whole guide on this, how to make an estate agency visible in ChatGPT, covering what an agency controls and what no provider can sell it.

One last point, often missed: inbound demand is lost when nobody answers. A seller who fills in a form at 9pm on a Tuesday may fill in three more that evening. The agency that replies first, in writing and then by phone once consent is there, gets ahead.

In practice, four tasks delegate well. Replying to a valuation request in writing within a minute, with the first questions about the property. Writing the viewing report from the agent's notes and sending it to the seller. Following up with buyers after a viewing. Updating the transaction software, which otherwise happens late at night or not at all. We detail what holds up in production in the five AI automations that hold up in an estate agency.

An AI agent that places calls itself is still bound by the canvassing rules, and the CNIL already requires consent for prospecting private individuals with automated calling. We cover that case in our guide to AI phone receptionists and outbound calls. The best return lies elsewhere: an instant written reply, then the agent's own call once the seller has said yes. That is the journey we build in the intelligent CRM for real estate.

Time. A site that attracts sellers is built page by page. Nobody publishes a reliable timeline, and a provider promising a precise one is selling a guess. Mail and fieldwork cover the transition.

Expiry. A one-year consent is not a permanent list. A seller who has not sold within the year must agree again before another call.

Material. An assistant recommends what it has read about. If your agency is mentioned nowhere but its own site, the levers are outside it: local press, real reviews, partners.

The law. This page reads the texts as of 9 October 2026 and is not legal advice. The first sanctions and case law will settle the grey areas, notably calling back a seller who asked to be contacted without ticking a box.

• Step 1, stop calls without consent. Cold calls and follow-ups to old lists without proof of consent all stop, including at providers who call on your behalf.
• Step 2, rebuild the form. The five items, an empty checkbox, timestamped archiving for three years.
• Step 3, reply within a minute. A useful written acknowledgement for every request, at any hour.
• Step 4, write the pages sellers look for. One local question per page, answered in full.
• Step 5, start mail and referrers. To cover the period while the site builds up.
• Step 6, delegate the admin. Reports, follow-ups, data entry, so the time saved goes to the field.

For the overall picture of AI projects in the sector, see our guide on AI in real estate, and for who does what on the market, our comparison of AI providers for real estate.