Exclusive vs shared mortgage leads (UK 2026): the real maths
Shared leads look cheap. Once you price in your own chase time, they end up ~4× more expensive per fact find than a booked show. The UK numbers, worked in full.
What "exclusive" and "shared" actually mean in the UK
Both words get used loosely. What they mean when you're buying:
- Shared mortgage leads. The same enquiry goes to two or more brokers at the same time. UK marketplaces usually spread each lead across 2–5 brokers. You and your competitors get the notification within seconds of each other. The applicant's phone rings three, four, five times in the first ten minutes.
- Semi-exclusive. Two buyers share the record. Less common in the UK but it shows up. Price and contact rate both sit between shared and exclusive.
- Exclusive. One broker receives the enquiry. That's the theory. Read the small print. Plenty of "exclusive" products resell the record after a 30, 60 or 90-day window if the broker hasn't converted it, which turns exclusivity into a time-boxed lease.
- Postcode-exclusive. A UK-specific twist. Exclusive within your postcode area; the same enquiry type is sold to another broker in the next postcode. Fine if you only work one area. Less good if you're national.
Three things to ask before you buy: how many buyers per record, whether there's a resale window, and whether the same data gets sold on under a different brand. All three are common.
The only number that matters: cost per fact find
Most brokers compare lead products on £ per lead. That's the number providers publish, so that's the number on the spreadsheet. It's the wrong one.
A mortgage lead has commercial value at three points in your pipeline, not one:
- Lead. A record lands in your CRM. Cost is known. Value is zero.
- Contact. They actually pick up. Every lead has a contact rate — the percentage that answer the phone.
- Fact find. You've run intake and have enough to shop the case. This is where the record could pay you a procuration fee.
Cost per fact find = (£ spent + time cost) ÷ fact finds produced
Cost per lead doesn't tell you whether the lead converts, how many hours you burn chasing, or how many ghosts you paid for.
UK price bands in 2026
Where each model sits on price and how exclusivity is structured. Bands across the UK market, not specific providers.
| Shared lead | Semi-exclusive | Exclusive lead | Booked show | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Buyers per record | 2–5 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| Typical UK price | £10–£20 | £30–£55 | £60–£90 | £90 per show |
| Contact rate | ~15% | ~40% | ~65% | ~100% |
| Resale clause? | N/A | Common | Sometimes (30–90 days) | No |
| No-show refund | No | No | Rare | Yes, automatic |
| Chase time per record | ~15 min | ~12 min | ~10 min | 0 min |
For a full breakdown of named UK providers and where they sit in this grid, see my comparison of the 13 biggest UK mortgage lead companies or the UK mortgage lead cost guide.
Contact rates: why 2.6× matters more than the sticker price
The headline gap: exclusive leads sit at around 65% contact rate. Shared leads sit at around 15%. The numbers come from US dialler data but track what UK brokers tell me.
Why the gap is that wide:
- First call wins. A shared lead pings three to five brokers at once. Everyone dials within minutes. The applicant picks up the first call, has a conversation, and by the time you're the second or third they've had enough.
- Number fatigue. Four unknown numbers calling inside ten minutes looks like a scam. Many stop picking up after the second ring.
- Decision fatigue. If they do answer, the first broker already took them through the basics. They'll shortcut the call or tell you they're "already talking to someone".
- No warning. Shared marketplaces don't tell the applicant how many brokers will call. Exclusive providers tend to. One call expected, not five.
The 2.6× gap isn't a quality issue. It's structural. Shared leads can't escape it.
The cost you can't see: your own hours
Brokers compare lead products on £ per lead and skip the time cost. That's where the maths breaks.
Chasing a shared lead costs 12–15 minutes: three call attempts, an SMS, a voicemail, a follow-up email, and often a re-dial the next day. The low contact rate is the reason — more work before you give up. An exclusive lead drops to around 10 minutes. A booked appointment drops to zero. The applicant is waiting for your call.
What's your time worth? If you earn £2,000–£4,000 per completed case, it's worth a lot more than £50/hour. But £50/hour is the floor most brokers can agree on, so use it as the anchor.
Time cost per lead = chase minutes ÷ 60 × £50
So a £15 shared lead actually costs you around £27.50 once you count 15 minutes of your time. Nobody puts that on the invoice.
Worked example: £1,000 three ways
Running £1,000 through each model. Unit prices sit at the middle of the bands above. Contact rates are 2026 UK averages. Fact-find conversion rates come from brokers I've spoken to running each model.
| Spend ≈ £1,000 | Shared leads | Exclusive leads | Booked shows |
|---|---|---|---|
| Unit price | £15 | £80 | £90 |
| Volume | 66 leads | 12 leads | 11 shows |
| Contact rate | 15% | 65% | 100% |
| Contacts | 10 | 8 | 11 |
| Fact find from contact | 40% | 60% | 85% |
| Fact finds produced | 4 | 5 | 9 |
| Chase time per record | 15 min | 10 min | 0 min |
| Total chase hours | 16.5 hrs | 2.0 hrs | 0 hrs |
| Time cost @ £50/hr | £825 | £100 | £0 |
| Total cost (£ + time) | £1,825 | £1,100 | £990 |
| Cost per fact find | £456 | £220 | £110 |
Shared leads look cheap at £15 a pop. You get 66 for your money. But 15% of 66 is ten contacts, and 40% of those reach fact find. Four fact finds, plus sixteen and a half hours on the phone. £456 per fact find once you price your own time.
Exclusives buy you fewer records (12) but a much higher contact rate. Roughly the same fact finds, a fraction of the chase. £220 per fact find.
Booked shows shift the risk to the provider. Eleven applicants turn up, nine reach fact find, chase time is zero because they're already waiting for your call. £110 per fact find. A quarter of the shared-lead cost.
Double your hourly rate and the gap widens. Halve it and shared leads start to break even with exclusives — but never with booked shows. Zero chase time beats every hourly rate.
The third category most brokers overlook
Shared versus exclusive misses a third option: pay-per-show. Not a middle ground. A different model.
What changes is where the risk sits:
- Pay-per-lead (shared or exclusive) puts all the risk on the broker. You pay for a record whether they pick up, whether they're genuine, whether they had any real intent.
- Pay-per-appointment splits the risk. The provider books the calendar. The broker absorbs the no-show. UK show rates on pay-per-appointment products sit at around 70%, which is the tax the broker pays.
- Pay-per-show puts the risk on the provider. You only pay when the applicant turns up. No-shows refund the credit automatically.
I built MortgagesBooked on this model. I was tired of paying for leads that never picked up. The £90 sticker is higher than exclusive pay-per-lead at £60–£90, but the cost-per-fact-find lands lower once you include chase time, and the ghost-applicant risk sits with the provider. See the pricing, or look at live appointments in the free preview before paying anything.
Red flags when buying exclusive leads
"Exclusive" does a lot of quiet work in mortgage lead marketing. Five things to check before you buy.
- Resale windows. Ask in writing whether the lead becomes non-exclusive after 30, 60 or 90 days. If yes, you're renting exclusivity, not buying it.
- Brand stacking. Some providers run two or three consumer-facing brands off the same lead pool. "Exclusive within our platform" is meaningless if the same applicant turns up on another platform you bought from.
- No published contact rate. Providers confident in quality will tell you the contact rate. If they won't, plan for the bottom of the band.
- Subscription minimums with no lead floor. A £500/month commitment with "up to X leads" delivered means the provider is incentivised to send whatever's cheapest to generate that month, not whatever's best.
- No refund mechanism. No-shows, duplicates, obviously-bogus submissions — all happen. If the provider doesn't stand behind quality with a refund or replacement policy, they're not confident in it.
Evaluating a new provider? Plug their prices and published contact rate into the worked-example table. If they won't publish a contact rate, assume the bottom of their band. The maths tells you inside a minute.