Episode
$15 billion in security deposits: India's tenants are their landlords' cheapest lenders
- Podcast
- Daybreak
- Published
- Jul 16, 2026
- Duration seconds
- 692
- Processing state
not_requested- Canonical source
- https://share.transistor.fm/s/1ccedd64
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Summary
Tenants across India's six biggest metros have handed landlords Rs 1.26 trillion in security deposits, a new NoBroker study estimates. Around $15 billion of tenant money, refundable in name, sits in landlords' accounts earning interest for people it does not belong to. In this episode, host Snigdha Sharma ask what a deposit actually costs a renter, and arrives at a number: nearly a month's rent, every year. The same tenant who pays 2 months' deposit in Mumbai is asked for 10 in Bengaluru, and in Delhi NCR, about 4 in 10 never got their full deposit back. Renting was meant to be a phase. But with home ownership drifting out of reach, tenants may be extending this loan for decades. Tune in. Recommendations: It sucks to be a tenant in Bengaluru right now *Take The Ken's audit here Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.