How much can your landlord increase the rent per year? (Chicago: hardwood floors, lease)

[C. Maurio]

The landlord can charge whatever they wish after your lease. I have never had a lease in Chicago that was not renewed with a higher rent for another year unless I told them I was moving. I own now.

[C. Maurio]

Originally Posted by rparz

I'm not aware of any limits. It's all supply and demand. Chicago is a hot rental market now, there's probably people lined up to move into your place paying the new lease rate.

It is red hot. 5 people want every apartment.

[ToBeSome1]

Last year, our rent increased by $90 to renew the lease! That's when we decided it was time to buy!

[JBVirtuoso]

I live in a building that's owned by a management company, and they offer different options for renewal. The standard one is to renew for another 12 months at some sort of higher rate than the previous year's rent. They also offer leases for between one and 11 months at various rates, all of which cost more per month than the standard 12-month lease. In any case, it's reasonable to expect that if you're switching to a month-to-month lease, the rent could go up by as much as 10-15%.

[SteveGolden]

My wife and I own a five unit building and live in one of the units. When a tenant moves in we offer them a one year lease. After that they can have a one year or two years lease. The two-year lease offers them the benefit of knowing their rent will not go up for two years and us the benefit of knowing that we do not have to look for a new tenant for two years. In either case we can raise the rent as much as we want, but we have very good tenants that we hope will stay and we do not want to chase them away by increasing the rent too much. Of course they're smart enough to know that taxes, garbage collection and everything else keeps going up so it's necessary for us to raise it some. As a rule most of our tenant stay at least five years. And only move on because they are leaving Chicago or buying a home of their own. As someone earlier commented if tenants do not cause problems, pay their rent on time, take care of their apartment reasonably well and do not make a lot of noise we hope they stay forever. Although it's not a requirement most of our tenants have become our friends.

[trailblazer33]

Originally Posted by JBVirtuoso

I live in a building that's owned by a management company, and they offer different options for renewal. The standard one is to renew for another 12 months at some sort of higher rate than the previous year's rent. They also offer leases for between one and 11 months at various rates, all of which cost more per month than the standard 12-month lease. In any case, it's reasonable to expect that if you're switching to a month-to-month lease, the rent could go up by as much as 10-15%.

Why is it reasonable to expect that rent should increase 5-8x the rate of inflation?

[Vlajos]

Originally Posted by trailblazer33

Why is it reasonable to expect that rent should increase 5-8x the rate of inflation?

Supply and demand of apartments.

[rparz]

What are you going to say when your landlord has people lined up to take your place at the new rate?

[Vlajos]

Chicago area rents rise in 2Q with vacancy rate flat - chicagotribune.com

[Lookout Kid]

Originally Posted by EastBoundandDownChick

Or would it (and this is my hunch) make more sense to simply renew the lease?

Even if you renew the lease, they can raise the rent to whatever rate they want for the second year. The difference is, if you have a lease, they lock it in for a year... But they may raise it more keeping that in mind. I say go for the flexibility of the month-to-month and don't rock the boat. If you demand a new lease, you are basically ASKING to have your rent raised.