How Can an AI Answer Calls for Real Estate Agents in Australia?

Short answer: an AI phone agent can answer enquiries while your team is at inspections or an auction, tell callers about a listing from the details you give it, book inspection times and take the caller's details for the right person. It can also log maintenance requests for property management after hours. It should not negotiate price, give valuation opinions or promise outcomes, and cold calling homeowners to win listings brings the Do Not Call Register into play. Start with inbound calls, which carry the least risk.

Where do agencies lose calls?

Weekends and evenings are when buyers and renters ring, and they are also when agents are out of the office. A caller who rings about a Saturday inspection and gets voicemail may simply book the next property on the list. Property management has its own pressure: tenants call about a leaking tap or a broken oven, and owners want a quick answer. An agent that answers every call and records the details gives your team a clean list on Monday morning.

What can the AI do for sales, rentals and property management?

Keep a short, up-to-date source of truth. The agent reads from the knowledge base you give it, so a listing that has sold should be removed the same day. For live availability and bookings it can call your calendar or system through tool calling, where an API exists.

What should stay with your people?

• Price conversations. Anything about offers, price guides, negotiation or auction strategy.
• Valuation opinions. The agent can book an appraisal; it should not estimate value.
• Legal and contract questions. Direct callers to your agent or their conveyancer.
• Tenant emergencies. Fire, flooding, no heating or safety issues go straight to the on-call person, with the instruction to ring 000 where life is at risk. Write those rules and test them.
• Distressed or aggressive callers. Transfer to a person (on Plivo and Telnyx numbers).

What about cold-calling homeowners?

Treat it separately and carefully. Calls offering goods or services, which would include inviting an owner to list with you, are telemarketing calls. The Do Not Call Register Act 2006 prohibits unsolicited telemarketing calls to numbers on the Register unless the person has consented, and the ACMA's industry standard limits calling to weekdays 9am to 8pm and Saturdays 9am to 5pm, with no calls on Sundays or national public holidays (read on the Do Not Call Register site, 25 October 2026). Whether a particular call counts as telemarketing is a question for your adviser. Read the Do Not Call Register and AI outbound calls.

We do not check the Register for you. The product gives you a do-not-contact list you keep, calling hours you set per campaign on the called person's clock, and an opening line that says who is calling and why.

Which channels do buyers and tenants actually use?

The phone and text. The ACMA found that 98 per cent of adults used mobile calls and 96 per cent SMS in the six months to mid-2025, while WhatsApp is not as widely used in Australia as in many other countries; we have not found a reliable national figure. The same agent can answer on WhatsApp and website chat if your buyers include international investors or overseas students who prefer it. Marketing messages sent to people fall under the Spam Act 2003.

How do I set it up?

1. Import your office number (it must live on a Twilio, Telnyx or Plivo account you hold) or forward after-hours calls to one.
2. Load listing details, your rental policy, inspection routines and office hours into the knowledge base.
3. Define the handover rules for each team.
4. Write a greeting that names the agency and says it is an AI assistant.
5. Review transcripts after every open-home weekend for the first month.

Your next step

See the real estate voice AI page, the Australia page and the AI receptionist overview, then build a test agent around one live listing.