A growing number of landlords who rented out their homes are at risk of being unable to return deposits to tenants seeking to move out amid declining sales due to stringent curbs on property speculation.

Many of them bought their homes by taking out loans and were able to cover the purchase price by renting them out through jeonse or Korean-style deposit leases.

According to the Korea Housing and Urban Guarantee Corporation (HUG), which guarantees deposits paid by tenants, 142 defaults on deposits were reported during the first six months of this year, up from 33 during the same period of 2017.

