The opt-out registry for estate agencies
Updated 4 November 2026 · Clearlist Compliance
If your agency sends listing alerts, show-day messages or canvasses owners by phone or WhatsApp, you must register on the NCC opt-out registry by 31 December 2026 and check your lists every month.
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What counts as marketing for you
- New listing and price-drop alerts by SMS, WhatsApp or email
- Show-day and open-house invitations
- Canvassing calls and messages to owners who might sell
- "Just sold in your area" letters and leaflets addressed to people
- Messages your franchise group or a marketing agency sends in your agency's name
Usually not marketing:
- Updates to a client about a sale or rental already in progress
- Lease, transfer and payment admin with existing clients
Where businesses like yours slip up
- Agents often keep their own contact lists on their phones. Every list counts, not just the agency CRM.
- Canvassing lists bought or shared between agents are the highest risk: assume many numbers on them have opted out.
- A seller who once said yes to your newsletter can still block you on the registry, and the block wins.
What you need to do
- Register as a direct marketer on the NCC portal before 31 December 2026. The NCC fee is R2,574.
- Check every contact list against the registry before you market, at least monthly. Free until 30 April 2027, then R0.12 per blocked record.
- Block opted-out contacts in every tool you market from, and tell anyone who markets for you.
- Keep records of each check as proof.
How Clearlist helps
We register you within 48 hours, clean and block your lists every month across all your tools, and send you a one-page report as proof. Most single-branch agencies fit Starter (R499 a month) plus R999 setup. Agencies with several branches or many agents fit Growth (R1,500 a month). NCC fees are passed on at cost.
Common questions
Do individual agents need to register, or just the agency?
The business that markets registers. If agents market in their own name with their own lists, speak to us: we set up the agency so every agent's lists are covered.
We use WhatsApp broadcast lists. Are those covered?
Yes. WhatsApp is an electronic channel like SMS and email, so broadcast lists need checking too.
Does this replace POPIA consent?
No. POPIA's rules on consent still apply. The registry is an extra check on top.
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Clearlist is an independent service provider, not part of or endorsed by the National Consumer Commission. This page is general information, not legal advice.