You are an independent real estate agent working a territory you know inside out. Monday morning, you want to follow up on three leads: a landlord you met door-to-door, a condominium whose property manager's mandate is coming to an end, and a private seller who pulled their listing without completing a sale. Before the law of August 11, 2026, this sequence was routine. Today, every contact raises the same preliminary question: am I allowed to call or write, and on what legal basis?
The answer is no longer uniform. It depends on who you are contacting (a private individual or a business), the channel (phone, email, SMS), and how you built your list. This page brings together the Outsend guides dedicated to real estate prospecting. Each one covers a concrete scenario, with the applicable legal framework and a method for building a clean, on-demand list for your area. Start with the topic that matches your next campaign.
The legal framework post-August 11, 2026
The law n°2025-594 redefines what separates accepted outreach from high-risk prospecting. The rule moves from opt-out (you call unless the person objects) to prior consent for cold-contacting private individuals. Before you use any contact list, review how you work.
To see what changes day to day for real estate professionals (sellers, buyers, landlords), the guide Cold outreach in real estate after the August 11, 2026 law breaks down the new rules channel by channel and identifies which scenarios remain open. It also covers the closure of Bloctel on 11 August 2026 and what replaced it (prior consent, its mandatory wording and its period of validity). It then covers the rules specific to email: what remains permitted in B2B under legitimate interest, and where prior consent becomes mandatory for private individuals.
Sourcing sellers and private property owners compliantly
The core of the job is still finding properties to list. But identifying a potential seller and contacting them are two distinct steps: the first involves gathering publicly available information, the second falls under outreach rules. Keep them separate and you still have room to work.
Property watch (pige) is the go-to approach: Property watch: finding private sellers in 2026 shows how to spot listings from private individuals and structure your follow-up without crossing into prohibited cold-calling. When cold calls are no longer straightforwardly viable, Cold outreach in real estate: 3 compliant methods offers approaches that hold up legally under the new law. For the rental market, Reaching out to landlords in 2026 draws the line between what remains possible depending on the contact's status and the channel used. Finally, senior sellers need a careful approach: Life annuity (viager): sourcing senior sellers without cold outreach describes a respectful approach that offers useful information instead of a direct sales pitch.
Agents, agencies, and property managers: prospecting between professionals
Part of your prospecting targets other professionals, not private individuals: agents within a network, peer agencies, condominium property managers (syndics). This B2B outreach falls under GDPR's legitimate interest basis. The rules are looser than in B2C, provided you keep an internal opt-out list and target relevant contacts.
To list the professionals in a given area, List of real estate agents in a zone shows how to build a clean file of agents within your perimeter, ready to use. On the buyer side, Private buyer: finding agents with exclusive mandates takes the buyer's side and explains how to reach the right contacts when searching for a property under an exclusive mandate. And for those targeting condominium management or related services, List of property managers by municipality details how to build a town-by-town list of syndics within a compliant framework.
Commercial real estate and land
Beyond residential property, two markets require their own sourcing methods: commercial real estate, where you are looking for owners of business premises, and land, where property dealers and developers look for plots and parcels. In both cases, the job is to identify the right owner from public sources before any contact is made.
For business premises, offices, and retail spaces, Commercial real estate: sourcing owners of business premises presents a compliant approach to building a list of qualified targets with Outsend. For land transactions, Sourcing landowners: a compliant guide for developers and property dealers explains how to identify parcel owners and prepare a controlled outreach strategy, without blind cold-calling.
Going further
Real estate prospecting is just one of the areas covered by Outsend. Depending on your needs, these four hubs complement these guides:
- Alternatives to prospecting tools: all Outsend comparisons: to see how Outsend stacks up against market solutions, comparison by comparison.
- Prospecting without a company registration number: guides for students, associations, freelancers, and job seekers: for building a targeted list without a formal business structure.
- Prospecting glossary: all the definitions: to clarify GDPR, opt-in, cold email, data enrichment, and other key concepts.
- Outsend features: all-in-one prospecting: to see concretely how Outsend chains together collection, verification, and export.
FAQ
Can I still prospect in real estate after the August 11, 2026 law?
Yes. The law tightens the conditions for cold-contacting private individuals, making prior consent the primary criterion for commercial phone calls and SMS. But prospecting remains possible: B2B outreach (agents, agencies, property managers) relies on GDPR's legitimate interest basis, and several non-intrusive approaches remain open for private individuals. The guides above cover concrete scenarios, channel by channel.
Is building a prospect list legal?
Collecting publicly available professional information to qualify a list is a documentation activity, distinct from the act of prospecting itself. It is the contact (call, email, SMS) that must comply with the applicable framework based on the target's profile and the channel used. Outsend helps you build a clean, targeted list on demand for your area; it is up to you to use it in accordance with the law.
Does Bloctel apply to my professional contacts?
The question no longer arises: Bloctel closed on 11 August 2026. The prior consent regime that replaced it, introduced by law no. 2025-594 of 30 June 2025, covers consumers only. Legal entities (property holding companies or SCIs, agencies, property managers, fellow professionals) fall under GDPR's legitimate interest basis. You must, however, maintain an internal opt-out list to respect the right of any professional who asks you to stop contacting them.
What is the difference between prospecting private individuals and professionals?
B2C outreach (private sellers, individual landlords, life-annuity sellers) is the most strictly regulated, with prior consent now the primary criterion for phone and SMS. B2B outreach (agents, agencies, property managers, commercial premises owners) relies on legitimate interest and allows more latitude, provided your targeting is relevant and the right to object is respected.
Which guide should I start with?
If you are resuming your campaigns after the new law, start with the legal framework section to reassess your setup. If your priority is getting new listings, go to the seller-sourcing section. If you work with agent networks or condominiums, the agents and property managers section is your starting point.
This article provides general information and does not constitute personalized legal advice. For specific situations, consult a lawyer specializing in real estate law or GDPR.