Portland tenants could see rent increases of up to 2.2% next year

Photo / Courtesy of Structure Media There are more than 19,500 rental units in the city of Portland.

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Rents in Portland could go up next year, by as much as 2.2% — the latest allowable increase set this week by the city for 2026.

The potential effect on tenants’ monthly bills follows a 2.5% rate increase for 2025, but is far off the peak number of 7% from 2023.

Portland code requires the annual allowable increase percentage to be determined on Sept. 1 of each year, and must be equal to 70% of the change in the Consumer Price Index for the Greater Boston Metro Area for the preceding 12 months.

From July 2024 to July 2025, that number grew 3.2%. Therefore, landlords are permitted to increase rents next year by a maximum of 2.2%.

Portland’s rent control ordinance was approved by voters in November 2020 and took effect January 1, 2021. It establishes a base rent for most units in the city as the rent charged in June 2020, and caps the amount by which landlords can hike rents annually.

Units that are exempted from rent control include those in in an owner-occupied building containing four or fewer units, publicly controlled or subsidized housing, accessory dwelling units and those owned, operated or managed by municipal housing authorities, such as Portland Housing Authority.

The ordinance applies to both long-term and short-term rental units.

The city also published this week the 2026 limit on non-owner occupied, short-term rentals for units on the mainland. That number is limited to no more than 1.5% of the total number of registered long-term rental units in the prior year.

The total number of long-term rentals as of Sept. 1 is 19,516 units, so the limit for non-owner occupied mainland short-term rentals for 2026 is 293 units.