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Rent Increase Rules by Town in Greater Portland, Maine

Published August 8, 2026 · 10 min read

Two tenants, both paying 1,800 dollars, both getting a rent increase letter this fall. One lives on Munjoy Hill in a building the landlord does not live in. The other lives in Falmouth. The first one's rent can legally go to 1,839.60. The second one's can go to whatever the landlord writes on the letter.

That is the entire story of rent regulation in Greater Portland, and almost nobody explains it correctly, because the two things people confuse are notice and amount. Maine state law controls how much warning you get. It says nothing at all about how much the number can move. Only two municipalities in the state control the number, and one of those two exempts most of its own rental stock.

Everything below comes from the City of Portland's own rent control page and its current FAQ, South Portland's rent stabilization Q and A, and the Maine Revised Statutes, read directly in August 2026. Where the towns disagree with each other, they disagree by design.

What Maine law actually does, and the section title that fools people

Title 14, Chapter 709 of the Maine Revised Statutes is the landlord and tenant chapter, and it contains a section literally called "Rent increase limitation." Section 6016 sounds like a statewide cap. It is not one. What it says is that rent may not be increased while the unit is in violation of the warranty of habitability, meaning a landlord cannot raise the rent on a place they have not fixed. If the tenant caused the problem, the bar does not apply. A landlord who violates it owes back the money with interest plus your attorney fees.

The section that touches every tenant in the region is 6015, and it is about notice:

• Any rent increase requires at least 45 days written notice. As of the 2023 amendments this covers mandatory recurring fees, not just rent, which closed the obvious workaround.
• An increase of 10 percent or more requires at least 75 days written notice. This one aggregates. If a landlord raises rent twice in a 12 month period and the increases together reach 10 percent, the 75 day notice is required before the increase that crosses the line.
• Both requirements are unwaivable. A lease clause saying otherwise is void as against public policy.
• The 75 day rule does not apply to deed-restricted affordable housing or to units restricted as a condition of a housing subsidy.

Separately, Section 6002 requires a minimum of 30 days written notice to end a tenancy at will, and allows 7 days for cause, including being 7 or more days behind on rent.

So the statewide floor is this: you are entitled to warning, and you are entitled to a habitable unit before anyone asks you for more money. You are not entitled to a ceiling.

Portland: the only place in Greater Portland with a real cap

Portland voters approved the rent control ordinance in November 2020. It took effect January 1, 2021, and it works off a fixed anchor: your unit's Base Rent is whatever it rented for in June 2020. If the unit was vacant, was not a rental, or did not exist then, the Base Rent is the first tenant's rent.

From that anchor, rent on a covered unit may increase once every 12 months, and only by a combination of four things:

1. The Allowable Increase Percentage, applied to current rent.
2. A 5 percent new tenancy bump, applied to Base Rent rather than current rent, and only if the previous tenant left voluntarily.
3. Banked rent, which is any allowable increase a landlord was entitled to in a prior year and did not take. Banked rent does not expire.
4. A Rent Board approved increase, granted on application for what the ordinance calls a fair rate of return.

No matter how those four stack, a single increase may never exceed 10 percent. Anything above 10 percent has to be banked for a future year.

The Allowable Increase Percentage, and the date to put in your calendar

Under City Code Chapter 6, Section 6-234(a), the Allowable Increase Percentage is set every September 1 and equals 70 percent of the change in the CPI-U for the Greater Boston metro area over the preceding twelve months, as published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics in August.

The 2026 figure comes from a 3.2 percent Greater Boston CPI-U move between July 2024 and July 2025. Seventy percent of 3.2 is 2.24, which the city published as 2.2 percent.

The 2027 number publishes on September 1, 2026. It will be built from the July 2025 to July 2026 Greater Boston CPI-U reading that BLS releases in August. Do not let anyone quote you a 2027 number before then, including us. We are not going to guess at it.

What Portland exempts, and it is more than people expect

The ordinance applies to all rental units in Portland, including short-term rentals. But the following are exempt from the limits on how much rent can rise:

• Units in an owner-occupied building containing 2, 3, or 4 dwelling units. In a city built on owner-occupied triple deckers, this is the exemption that matters most.
• Units where rent is publicly controlled or subsidized, such as Section 8 or General Assistance.
• Accessory dwelling units.
• Units owned, operated, or managed by a municipal housing authority.
• Accommodations in a hospital, convent, church, religious facility, or extended care facility.
• Dormitories run by a college or by Portland Public Schools.

If you rent the second floor of a three unit house and your landlord lives on the first floor, the cap does not protect you. The notice rules still do.

Portland's notice rule is stricter than the state's

Before raising rent on a covered unit, a Portland landlord must give at least 90 days written notice, and the notice has to contain six specific things: the landlord's signature, the date the tenancy began, the date the increase takes effect, the amount, any remaining banked rent not included in this increase, and which of the four allowable reasons is being used. A notice missing the reason is not a compliant notice.

Terminating a tenancy is also stricter. The baseline is 90 days, with three exceptions: 7 days for cause, 60 to 89 days if the landlord pays the tenant one month's rent, and 30 to 59 days if the landlord pays two months' rent.

A few other provisions that come up constantly and are easy to check: landlords may not charge application fees, security deposits are capped at one month's rent, and capital improvements such as a new kitchen do not by themselves justify an extra increase without an approved application to the Rent Board.

How to actually check your own unit

Portland rental data is public. Rental information by address is available through the city's Citizen Self Service portal, so you can look up what a unit is registered at. Complaints go to the Housing Safety office at rentcontrol@portlandmaine.gov, or through the complaint form on the city's Rent Control and Rental Housing Rights page. Rental properties must be registered within 14 days of being rented, and an unregistered building is itself a violation worth mentioning when you call.

South Portland: a cap that misses most of the city's tenants

South Portland amended Chapter 12 of its code in 2023 and became the second Maine municipality with a rent cap. Read the headline number and it looks generous. Read the threshold and it mostly is not.

The cap is 10 percent per year, and it applies only when the unit is one of 16 or more units under common or affiliated ownership. The city states it plainly: the rent cap does not apply to owners of 15 or fewer units. The exemption list goes further:

• Units whose owner and affiliates own fewer than 16 units.
• Units built after May 27, 2023.
• Affordable units where rent is controlled or set by a government program, including Housing Choice Voucher units, as long as they stay in compliance.
• Additional exemptions for dormitories, institutions, and single-family residences, spelled out in Section 12-503.

South Portland is candid about enforcement too. The ordinance is self-enforcing. If a landlord violates the cap, the remedy is that the tenant gets an affirmative defense in an eviction action. The city monitors compliance and reserves the right to act on egregious or intentional violations, but there is no rent board issuing you a refund.

Where South Portland is genuinely stronger than the state: any rent increase requires 90 days written notice, not 45, under Section 12-223. The city raised that from 75 days in the same round of amendments, and it also gives tenants 30 days to respond to a proposed new rental agreement. Landlords additionally have to hand tenants written notice that the ordinance exists.

Buildings with three or more dwelling or rooming units have had to register with the city since January 1, 2012.

Everywhere else: the state floor, and that is all

Falmouth, Cumberland, Yarmouth, Freeport, Scarborough, Cape Elizabeth, Gorham, Westbrook, Windham, and Brunswick have no local rent cap. Portland and South Portland are the only two municipalities in Maine that limit the amount of a rent increase, a point the Portland Press Herald was still fielding as a reader question in May 2026.

In practice that means in ten of the twelve towns most people mean when they say Greater Portland, your protections are exactly these: 45 days notice, 75 days if the increase is 10 percent or more, no increase while the unit is uninhabitable, and 30 days notice to end a tenancy at will. Nothing about the number.

This is worth knowing before you sign, not after. If you are weighing towns, the rent rules belong in the comparison alongside property taxes by town and the rest of the real cost of living here. A Falmouth apartment 200 dollars cheaper than a Portland one is not cheaper if the Portland one is capped at 2.2 percent and the Falmouth one is not capped at all.

What to do when the letter arrives

Read the date first. Count the days between the postmark and the effective date, and compare that against 45, 75, or 90 depending on where you live and how big the increase is. A defective notice is the single most common problem, and it is the easiest one to spot without a lawyer.

Then work out the percentage. Divide the increase by your current rent. If you are in Portland in a covered unit and the answer is above 2.2 percent, the landlord is claiming banked rent, a new tenancy bump, or a Rent Board approval, and the notice is required to say which. If it does not say, that is your question.

One honest caveat: this is a plain-language summary of published municipal rules and state statutes, not legal advice, and both cities say the same thing in their own documents. For an actual dispute, Pine Tree Legal Assistance publishes a free tenant rights guide for Maine, and both cities list it.

FAQ

How much can a landlord raise the rent in Portland, Maine in 2026?

For a covered unit, the Allowable Increase Percentage for calendar year 2026 is 2.2 percent of current rent, applied no more than once every 12 months. A landlord may add a 5 percent new tenancy increase calculated on Base Rent if the prior tenant left voluntarily, plus any banked rent from prior years, but no single increase may exceed 10 percent in total.

Is there a statewide rent control law in Maine?

No. Maine has no statewide cap on the amount of a rent increase. Title 14, Section 6016 is titled "Rent increase limitation" but only bars raising rent while the unit violates the warranty of habitability. Only Portland and South Portland cap the amount.

How much notice does a landlord have to give before raising rent in Maine?

At least 45 days written notice for any increase, and at least 75 days if the increase is 10 percent or more, including increases that reach 10 percent cumulatively within a 12 month period. Portland and South Portland both require 90 days.

Does Portland's rent control apply to every apartment in the city?

No. Units in an owner-occupied building of 2, 3, or 4 dwelling units are exempt from the increase limits, as are accessory dwelling units, subsidized units, housing authority units, dormitories, and accommodations in hospitals, religious facilities, and extended care facilities.

When does Portland publish the next allowable rent increase percentage?

Every September 1, for the following calendar year. The 2027 figure publishes September 1, 2026, and equals 70 percent of the change in the Greater Boston metro CPI-U for the preceding twelve months as published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics in August.

Does South Portland's rent cap apply to my apartment?

Only if your unit is one of 16 or more units under common or affiliated ownership. Landlords who own 15 or fewer units are exempt, as are units built after May 27, 2023, subsidized units, single-family homes, dormitories, and institutions.

What about short-term rentals?

Portland's rent control ordinance applies to short-term rental units as well as long-term ones. The registration and fee side is separate, and it varies more between towns than almost anything else in the region. See short-term rental rules by town.