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Spanish rent increase calculator

How much your rent can rise this year, under which index, when it starts to be payable, and whether the increase you were given was lawful.

Your anniversary, your rent and what your contract says
Maximum rent
€922.41
Maximum increase
2.49 %
What caps it
The IRAV (add. prov. 11)
Breakdown of the maximum increase: reference month, the limits in play and the amount.
Current rent€900.00
Reference monthpublished on 13 August 2026July 2026
CPI ceiling (art. 18.1)3.60 %
INE index ceiling (additional provision 11)2.49 %
Increase per month€22.41
Increase per year€268.92
Payable fromNot notified yet
  • The updated rent is not payable until the month after written notice (article 18.2). Enter the date in the panel below to see when it starts.
  • The notice has to state the percentage applied and, if you require it, enclose an INE certificate. A note on the previous month’s receipt is valid.
  • The INE index falls below the CPI ceiling, which is why it is the one that binds: additional provision 11 sets it as the “reference limit for the purposes of article 18”.
  • The reference month is not your anniversary month, and the DAY changes it: article 18.1 takes the last index published on that day, and the INE publishes in mid-month.
  • This is for residential lettings. A shop, an office or a seasonal let falls under article 4.3 of the Act, which leaves it to whatever the parties agreed, without this ceiling.
When were you notified in writing?

Article 18.2 makes the updated rent payable “from the month following” the written notice. With no notice there is nothing extra to pay, and a late notice cannot be backdated.

Educational estimate: it does not constitute financial or legal advice.

Sources: article 18 and additional provision 11 of Law 29/1994, transitional provision 4 of Law 12/2023, article 46 of Royal Decree-Law 6/2022, the annex to Law 2/2015 and the INE resolution of 18 December 2024. Index data from the INE.

Video: how to use the calculator

1

First, whether there is a clause at all: with no agreement there is no increase

Article 18.1 of the Urban Tenancies Act opens by saying the rent may only be updated “on the terms agreed by the parties” and closes that first sentence with a rule almost no page reports: “in the absence of an express agreement, no rent update shall apply to the contract”. That is not a presumption in favour of the CPI; it is the absence of any right to raise the rent. The calculator asks about the clause before it asks about any index, because it is the one answer that depends on no figure at all.

2

Then the index, and here the signature date splits the market in two

Paragraph 3 of the same article sets a universal ceiling: the increase may not exceed “in any event” the variation in the CPI. But for contracts signed from 26 May 2023 there is a second ceiling, and it is lower: additional provision eleven, which Law 12/2023 added to the same Act, instructs the INE to define a reference index “which shall be set as the reference limit for the purposes of article 18”. That index has existed since December 2024 and in July 2026 stands at 2.49% against a CPI of 3.6%. Transitional provision four of Law 12/2023 leaves earlier contracts under the regime they already had, so that ceiling does not reach them.

3

The reference month is yours, and the day of the month changes it

The Act does not order you to apply the latest index published today, but “the last index published on the date the contract falls due for updating”. That is a condition about a publication date, not about the calendar, and the INE publishes in mid-month: the July 2026 index came out on 13 August. So an anniversary falling on 12 August takes the June index and one falling on the 13th takes July’s. Two days apart, 2.44% against 2.49%. The Ministry’s own calculator answers only for a contract updating today.

4

The agreed index nobody looks at: the IGC, and it stands at zero

If the contract says the rent will be updated annually but does not specify the index, paragraph 2 of article 18.1 applies the Competitiveness Guarantee Index. It is an INE index whose formula sits in the annex to Law 2/2015, and that same annex says that “where the IGC rate of variation is negative, the revision value shall be taken as zero”. The IGC has been continuously negative since 2024: in June 2026 it reads −0.76%. For those contracts the lawful increase is nil, with a CPI of 3.6%.

5

And last, when it starts to be payable

Article 18.2 makes the updated rent payable “from the month following that in which the interested party notifies the other in writing, stating the percentage of change applied”. If the tenant requires it, an INE certificate must be enclosed. The notice may be a note on the previous month’s receipt, and that is valid. What is not available is claiming back the months in which no notice was given: the increase was not payable then.

Worked example

An example, and it is the calculator’s opening state. A flat let for 900 euros a month, contract signed in March 2024, a clause saying the rent is updated with the CPI, and an anniversary falling on 1 September 2026. The reference month is July 2026, because its index was published on 13 August and August’s does not appear until 15 September. That month’s CPI ceiling is 3.6% and the INE index 2.49%, so the second one governs: the maximum rent is 922.41 euros, 22.41 euros more a month and 268.92 a year. The same flat on a contract signed in January 2022 would go to 3.6% and pay 932.40 euros, that is 9.99 euros more a month and 119.88 a year, for the same property in the same month. And if the clause named no index at all, the lawful increase would be nil in both cases.

Frequently asked questions

How much can my Spanish rent go up in 2026?
It depends on when you signed. If the contract is dated 26 May 2023 or later, the ceiling is the INE reference index, which in July 2026 stands at 2.49%. If it is earlier, the ceiling is the variation in the CPI, which that same month is 3.6%. Either way the contract needs an update clause, and the percentage comes from the last index published on the day the anniversary falls, not from the latest one published today.
What if my contract says nothing about raising the rent?
Then it cannot go up. Article 18.1 of the Urban Tenancies Act says that “in the absence of an express agreement, no rent update shall apply to the contract”. There is no default updating, not with the CPI and not with any other index: the rent stays as it is for the whole term, unless the parties agree otherwise.
My contract says the rent is updated yearly but does not name an index. How much does it go up?
Nil, today. Paragraph 2 of article 18.1 applies the Competitiveness Guarantee Index in that case, and the annex to Law 2/2015 turns a negative rate of that index into a revision value of zero. The IGC has been negative since 2024: in June 2026 it reads −0.76%. It is the case no calculator on that search covers, and it is common in contracts drafted with a generic clause.
What is this month’s IRAV?
The latest published is July 2026 at 2.49%; the INE published it on 13 August 2026. August’s is published on 15 September. The index is released monthly and on the same dates as the CPI, so through the first half of any month the latest available index is the one for two months earlier.
Why 2% in 2022 and 2023 and 3% in 2024?
Because article 46 of Royal Decree-Law 6/2022 limited those years’ updates on an extraordinary basis. And there is a detail almost nobody reports: the 2% is not in that decree-law. The article caps the rise at the annual variation in the IGC, and the 2% is the ceiling the IGC itself has carried since the annex to Law 2/2015, where it is defined as the European Central Bank’s medium-term inflation target. That is why at the end of 2023, when the IGC fell below that ceiling, the cap was 0.58% and not 2%.
Can my landlord claim the increase for the earlier months?
No. Article 18.2 makes the updated rent payable “from the month following” the written notice, so the months in which no notice was given create no debt. The notice has to state the percentage applied and, if you require it, enclose an INE certificate. A note on the previous month’s receipt is valid, and that is the usual way of doing it.
What do I do if the increase is above what the law allows?
Check three things first, because one of them usually explains the gap: what your clause actually says, which reference month corresponds to the day your anniversary falls, and whether the written notice exists and what percentage it states. With that, this calculator’s review mode compares the rent you are being charged with that month’s lawful maximum and puts a figure on the overcharge. Rent above the lawful maximum can be reclaimed.
Does the INE index apply to a shop or an office too?
No. Both article 18 and additional provision eleven sit in title II of the Act, which governs residential lettings. A business premises, an office or a seasonal let is a letting for a use other than dwelling and falls under article 4.3: the will of the parties, with the Civil Code filling the gaps. There is no statutory ceiling on updating there.
Is the IRAV the same as the rent reference price index?
No, and the two are often confused. The INE reference index caps the annual UPDATING of a contract that already exists. The state system of reference price indices, the one behind the Ministry’s app, caps the INITIAL rent of a new contract in a strained residential market zone, and only where the regional government has declared that zone. They are two different limits, on two different moments, in two different articles of the Act.
Can I update the rent retroactively if I forgot a year?
Rent not updated at the time is not recovered backwards through article 18.2, because the update is only payable from the month following the notice. And article 18.1 itself places the update “on the date each year of the contract’s term falls due”, with the index published on that date, not today’s. If the case is doubtful, take advice: reading a particular clause is a legal question rather than a calculation.

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Author: Thorben Rasmus Idel · Reviewed by: Nahar Geva · Last reviewed: