What commercial finance leads cost, and why they price differently
A commercial finance enquiry costs more to produce, more to qualify and more to lose than a business loan enquiry. The price reflects all three, and the only fair test of it is cost per funded deal.
Commercial finance leads cost more per lead than business loan or asset finance leads, and the gap is not a margin decision. The enquiry is harder to generate: fewer people search for commercial property finance and the clicks are contested. It is harder to qualify: more form-fills are not commercial at all. And it is worth more funded: the commercial property refinance flow runs $1M to $10M+, against an average business loan enquiry of about $149,000.
The sticker price is the wrong comparison: the premium buys reach into deals many times larger. The general factors are in what finance leads cost; this page is about commercial only.
Fewer searches, contested clicks
Far fewer people type 'commercial property refinance' than 'business loan', and lenders, aggregators and well-funded brokers bid on those who do; each click costs more before any form is filled in.
A longer form loses people
A commercial intake asks for property type, approximate value, LVR range, the existing facility and timeframe. Every extra question loses people who would have finished a short form; the completed enquiries carry the drop-off.
More fail review
More commercial form-fills are working-capital requests with the wrong box ticked, residential enquiries, or amounts nowhere near the stated band; scoring and human review remove them, and the enquiries that ship absorb the spend.
Five things move a commercial quote:
- Amount band. A refinance enquiry in the $1M to $10M+ flow and an ATO tax-debt situation from $50,000 are different deals; larger bands are rarer and cost more to reach.
- How much is known up front. A refinance borrower already has a valuation, an income history and an existing facility; a purchase enquiry may have none yet. More known means less discovery for you, and it is one of the inputs to the quote.
- Urgency. A facility expiry or an ATO deadline is worth more than 'exploring options', and the audience is narrower.
- Geography. State, metro or postcode targeting shrinks the pool; the tighter the area, the higher the cost per enquiry.
- Volume. Commercial enquiries arrive in smaller numbers than consumer flows, so campaigns learn more slowly and a quote is built on a realistic monthly figure, not a weekly one.
Ask for a quote by deal type, not 'commercial leads'; one blended price usually means the refinance flow is not separated out.
A deliberately simple hypothetical. Call one verified business loan enquiry one unit, and suppose a verified commercial refinance enquiry costs several units (the ratio is illustrative, not a quote). Behind each: a business loan enquiry averages about $149,000; a refinance enquiry in the $1M to $10M+ flow is many times that, so on your own commission schedule the multiple on the funded deal dwarfs the multiple on the lead.
Then run the chain: contact rate (the published figure here is 72.5%), conversion to lodgement, settlement rate. That gives a cost per funded deal per lead type, the figure to compare; the method is in cost per funded deal.
The second reason is your hours: a $3M refinance (again hypothetical) runs weeks of valuation, credit and covenant work, so a bad commercial lead wastes days, not a fee. Price those hours in and the verified, exclusive enquiry is cheaper.
The quote tells you what is being sold:
- Commercial at business-loan prices. Almost always business loan enquiries behind a relabelled form; if the sample lead has no property, facility or debt-position field, that is what you are buying (the fields to check).
- Low prices with big volume promises. Genuine $1M+ refinance enquiries do not come in bulk; dozens a week means reselling, unverified form-fills, or enquiries well below the band.
- One price regardless of exclusivity. Resold enquiries should sit far below exclusive ones; if a provider cannot say how many brokers receive each enquiry, assume more than one.
- No stated verification. Ask whether the mobile was confirmed before delivery; an unverified enquiry at a commercial price is the worst buy on this page.
Demand is strong, lifting enquiry costs and deal flow together. Business credit is growing 10.8% year on year and business property-purchase finance reached $27.2b, up 18.9% year on year (both RBA Financial Aggregates, July 2026): more owners borrowing against commercial property, more lenders and brokers bidding for the same searches.
Some Australian real-estate credit funds gated redemptions for two to six months in July and August 2026 (trade press, August 2026), sending borrowers on non-bank facilities back to market. A 2026 quote reflects both: more refinance enquiries, more buyers for each.
La Vitesse sells exclusive commercial finance leads, pay per lead: commercial property purchases and refinances, debt restructures and ATO tax-debt situations from $50,000, with property type, approximate value and LVR range captured up front and every mobile confirmed by SMS code before the lead ships. Pricing is quoted on a call, by niche and volume; no lock-in contracts, no setup fees, no monthly retainers; published contact rate 72.5%. Each enquiry's fields are listed on commercial finance leads; the $1M to $10M+ slice is on commercial refinance deal flow.