Portland Maine Rent Increase Limit 2026: 2.2%

If a landlord didn't use the full AIP in a given year, the unused portion carries forward and doesn't expire.

[Cite: City of Portland Permitting & Inspections Department, Rent Control Ordinance FAQ, Version 2025.10.24]

That mechanism is the practical answer to a 2.2% cap feeling too low for a given unit's rent trajectory. A landlord who held rent flat in 2024, or only took a partial increase in 2025, may already have banked capacity well beyond the current year's 2.2%, up to the 10% single-increase ceiling. The year-over-year AIP figure alone understates what a specific unit may actually be eligible for once banked amounts are factored in.

5. What the 90-day notice actually has to contain

Before implementing an increase, a landlord must give tenants written notice at least 90 days in advance. That notice has to include the landlord's signature, the date the tenancy began, the date the increase takes effect, the dollar amount of the increase, any remaining banked rent not included in the increase, and the stated reason for the increase.

[Cite: City of Portland Permitting & Inspections Department, Rent Control Ordinance FAQ, Version 2025.10.24, Section 6-234]

That's a more detailed checklist than a simple advance-notice requirement. A notice missing any of those six elements, the signature, tenancy start date, effective date, dollar amount, banked-rent disclosure, or stated reason, doesn't satisfy the ordinance even if it arrives with plenty of lead time.

6. Why the base rent reference date still matters in 2026

The ordinance defines Base Rent as the amount charged for the unit in June 2020, or, if the unit was vacant or didn't exist at that point, the amount agreed to by the first tenant.

[Cite: City of Portland Permitting & Inspections Department, Rent Control Ordinance FAQ, Version 2025.10.24]

Six years into the ordinance, that reference point remains the anchor every subsequent AIP compounds against. A landlord calculating what a 2.2% increase actually means in dollar terms for a specific unit needs to trace the compounding history back through each year's applied and banked increases, not just apply 2.2% to the current rent in isolation, if reconstructing the full banked-capacity picture.

7. The exemptions that take a property out of this framework entirely

Several categories of housing fall outside the ordinance altogether: owner-occupied buildings with 2, 3, or 4 units; publicly subsidized housing such as Section 8 and General Assistance housing; accessory dwelling units; properties operated by a municipal housing authority; hospital, convent, church, or other religious institutional housing; and dormitories operated by a college or Portland Public Schools.

[Cite: City of Portland Permitting & Inspections Department, Rent Control Ordinance FAQ, Version 2025.10.24]

A landlord with a mixed portfolio, some properties meeting an exemption category and others not, needs to apply the AIP and banking framework only to the covered units, since an exempt property isn't bound by either the 2.2% figure or the notice-content requirements described above.

8. Capital improvements don't bypass the cap on their own

The ordinance's framework doesn't allow a landlord to exceed the AIP or the 10% hard cap simply by citing capital improvements as justification. Exceeding the allowable percentage for that reason requires Rent Board approval.

[Cite: City of Portland Permitting & Inspections Department, Rent Control Ordinance FAQ, Version 2025.10.24]

That distinction is worth knowing before assuming a major renovation automatically justifies a larger increase. Without Rent Board approval, a capital-improvement-driven increase is still bound by the same AIP and banking rules as any other increase.

9. Where this ordinance originated

Portland voters approved the underlying rent control ordinance in November 2020, and it took effect January 1, 2021, with the AIP mechanism itself unable to begin generating a new annual figure before the ordinance's first full year in place.

[Cite: City of Portland Permitting & Inspections Department, Rent Control Ordinance FAQ, Version 2025.10.24]

That five-year track record is part of why the banking mechanism carries real weight by 2026. A landlord who has owned a Portland rental since before the ordinance took effect has had multiple years to either apply increases at or below the AIP or let unused capacity accumulate.

10. What property managers should do now

The practical starting point is reconstructing each covered unit's banked-increase history rather than treating 2.2% as the only number relevant to a 2026 increase, since accumulated banked capacity, capped at the 10% ceiling, may allow a larger increase than the current year's AIP alone suggests.

Building the 90-day notice requirement into a 2026 planning calendar, and confirming each notice includes all six required elements rather than just an increase amount and date, reduces the risk of a technically noncompliant notice even when the underlying increase itself is within the allowable percentage.