key money

noun

1. advance rent or security required of a new tenant and given in exchange for the key to the house or apartment.

2. an amount of money paid, often secretly, to a landlord, superintendent, or current tenant by a person desiring future tenancy.

key money

noun

1. a fee payment required from a new tenant of a house or flat before he moves in

Word History and Origins

Origin of key money¹

First recorded in 1895–1900

Example Sentences

To tease out key money lessons, we talked to a few leaders in the financial world about their best takeaways.

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The key money rate, the overnight repo rate, is languishing at a 1-1/2-year low below 1%, and data due as early as Wednesday will show the state of new loans and total money supply.

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“Rafael Ortega is the key money manager behind the Ortega family’s illicit financial schemes,” it said in a statement.

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Trump has demanded a payoff to the U.S. government he called “key money” — described by others as a $5 billion “education fund” — which ByteDance said it was unaware of.

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"It's a little bit like the landlord/tenant; without a lease the tenant has nothing, so they pay what's called 'key money,' or they pay something," Trump said in August.

Read more on Salon