51.8% of High Income Property Enquirers Fail on Finance

What we measured

The sample is every property enquiry that entered our campaigns across 2025 and 2026, thousands of leads, each collected with consent and put through the PrimeProof finance check before delivery. For this analysis we looked at the subset who reported household income above $120,000 and tested whether they could proceed on a $650,000 purchase, a realistic entry point when the national median dwelling sits at $937,722 (Cotality, June 2026).

One honest caveat: this is our operating data, not a peer reviewed study. The population is property enquirers responding to our own campaigns, so rates may differ for other channels. The sample is large, recent and measured the same way every time, which is more than can be said for an income tick box.

Why income alone misleads

Income is one input in the maths lenders apply. The rest of the picture is invisible to a form field, and with new owner occupier variable rates averaging 6.23% (RBA, May 2026), the rest of the picture is decisive. Two households on the same $130,000 can sit at opposite ends of a finance decision:

• Existing debts. Car loans, personal loans and HECS balances all reduce what a lender will approve.
• Credit card limits. Lenders count the limit, not the balance, an unused $20,000 limit still shrinks the approval.
• Living expenses and dependants. Declared expenses are tested line by line, and a family of five is not a single professional.
• Deposit size. A strong income with a thin deposit still fails at a $650,000 price point.
• Credit history. Missed repayments and defaults sit on the file regardless of salary.

None of that appears in an income filtered lead. Which is why half the "qualified" leads on the market are conversations that cannot become contracts, no matter how good the salesperson.

What changes when leads are checked first

Every PrimeLeads property lead clears the PrimeProof checks before delivery: identity, intent, finance and consent, run with the enquirer's consent. Enquiries that cannot proceed exit the funnel there, never delivered and never billed. The leads that remain fail on finance less than 5% of the time, roughly a tenfold improvement on the income filtered baseline.

The trade is volume for certainty. Filtering removes roughly half of high income enquiries, so a checked feed is smaller than a raw one, and the leads that arrive can transact. How the two models compare row by row is on our property leads page.

The hidden labour cost of the 51.8%

A dead lead does not just waste its purchase price. It wastes your team's hours. Assume a salesperson costs about $45 an hour and a lead worked properly takes about five call attempts plus follow up, roughly 30 minutes across a week. Per 100 leads, that is about 50 hours of calling.

And speed cannot save a lead that was never able to buy. A five minute response makes you about 21x more likely to qualify a lead, but the fastest call in the world cannot finance a buyer the lenders will not touch. Check first, then be fast.

What this means if you buy property or mortgage leads

• Ask any provider what qualified means. If the answer is a stated income band, price in a roughly 50% dead rate before your team dials.
• Judge suppliers on cost per settled deal, not cost per lead. A cheaper lead that fails on finance half the time is the expensive one.
• Expect volume honesty. Real checking removes enquiries. A provider promising both deep qualification and unlimited volume is describing two different products.

This finding is the reason the PrimeProof finance check exists, and the reason our property leads and mortgage refinance leads carry a simple guarantee: if they cannot proceed, the lead is never delivered and never billed. For how this compares with cheap social form fills, see Facebook lead ads vs verified leads.