Portland Maine Rent Increase Limit 2026: 2.2%

Portland's rent control ordinance requires the city's Housing Safety Office to establish and publish an Allowable Increase Percentage every September 1, for use during the following calendar year. For 2026, that figure was set at 2.2%.

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

The ordinance text itself doesn't publish the specific calculation the Housing Safety Office uses to arrive at that number each year. Secondary reporting has described the figure as tracking a portion of Consumer Price Index growth for the Greater Boston Metro Area, and the reported 2026 CPI data is broadly consistent with that description, but the exact formula isn't spelled out in the city's own FAQ document.

[Cite: Mainebiz, "Rent increases by Portland landlords will be capped at 2.2% for 2026"]

The AIP has moved unevenly since the ordinance took effect: 4.3% in 2022, 7.0% in 2023, 2.0% in 2024, 2.5% in 2025, and 2.2% for 2026.

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

A landlord accustomed to the AIP climbing or holding steady year over year should note this one moved in the opposite direction. That's a meaningful planning detail for any owner who timed a 2026 increase around an assumption that the cap would match or exceed 2025's.

The ordinance allows one rent increase per 12-month period, capped at the published AIP for that year, with a separate hard ceiling: a single increase can never exceed 10%, regardless of how much banked capacity a landlord has accumulated.

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

Those are two different constraints operating at once. The AIP caps how much new eligibility accrues each year; the 10% ceiling caps how much of that accumulated eligibility, current plus banked, can actually be applied in any single increase.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.