Hello!

I am about to renew my rental contract next month and I am wondering if there is a legal cap for how much my rent can increase?

Currently I am living in Barcelona, plaza espa?a area in a 2 br apartment.  I am happy with the apartment, though, I pay a hefty price already.  The landlary wants to raise from 750 to 780…which I think is about 4%  My contract is what seems to be a standard legal contract (wite paper with blue decor: Contrato de Arrendamiento de Finca Urbana.  I was told that there is a cap in Barcelona (possibly the rest of Spain) of how much a landlord can raise the rent, but I am not sure what to search for in order to find this information. 

Please advise if you have any information, as I do not think this increase is fair.

Thank you!

Is 4% rent increase reasonable?  From what I am told by a few expats and locals, the norm is 1-2% and it is documented somewhere.  Where would I find this information?

There are no government controls on rents - it is a negotiation between landlord and tenant - if the contract has no terms on the g;e increase then its a case of negotiating. In this area rents are going up as more people are struggling to either afford or get mortgages so renting is their only option.

This is what is in the contract:

“Las partes contratantes convienen que la renta total que en cada momento satisfaga el arrendatario, durante la vigencia del contrato o de sus prorrogas, se acomodara cada a?o a la variaci?n porcentual experimentada por el ?ndice General Nacional del Sistema de ?ndices de Precios de Consumo que fije el Instituto Nacional de Estad?stica (u Organismo que le sustituya), aplicado sobre aquella renta el porcentaje que represente la diferencia existente entre los ?ndices que corresponden al periodo de revisi?n.  Para la aplicaci?n de la primera actualizaci?n se tomara como mes de referencia el de ABRIL y para las sucesivas el que corresponda al ultimo aplicado. 

La renta actualizada sera exigible al arrendatario a partir del mes siguiente a aquel en que la parte interesada lo notifique a la otra parte por escrito, expresando el porcentaje de alteraci?n aplicado.  En ning?n caso, la demora en aplicar la revisi?n supondr? o caducidad de la misma.”

http://www.ine.es/daco/daco42/daco421/lau.htm

This is the website for Instituto Nacional de Estad?stica ... taking the 2007 results, starting in april and going to december (can not find 2008 info yet), my total comes 769 and some change.  But this is for 9 months, and not 11.