2 rules apply — the local one first, then the county and state rules that bind alongside it.
Verified on 2026-08-17.
At the expiration of a lease Camden permits no increase above the average CPI for the preceding twelve months for the Philadelphia metropolitan area, or 6% of the most recent rent, whichever is less.
Not stated, and deliberately. §650-1 defines the covered class with the word "Includes" followed by items every comparable ordinance lists as exemptions — owner-occupied one- to four-family dwellings, hotel space, portions rented for commercial use — and separately defines "EXEMPTIONS" and then never lists any. Read literally the chapter covers owner-occupied one- to four-family houses; the Department of Community Affairs reads those items as exceptions and records Camden as reaching structures of one or more units. Both readings are defensible from the text and they produce opposite answers for exactly the building a small investor buys, so the question goes to the Bureau of Rent Control in writing before an offer rather than into this field.
Camden reads the Philadelphia CPI rather than the New York one every northern New Jersey ordinance uses — the two diverge, and quoting the wrong index models the cap a point out. "Substantially rehabilitated" is defined as capital improvements above $10,000, made in a single renovation programme inside one year and related to the whole structure. Base rents were rolled to what the landlord was receiving on 1 January 1981. One more thing to check before relying on any of this: the chapter has an amendment adopted 10 February 2026 (Ord. MC-5610) that was not yet codified when this was written, so the cap above may have moved.
Exemptions
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Verified on 2026-08-17.
New Jersey has no statewide rent control. The Department of Community Affairs' 2026 survey of all 564 municipalities found 120 with an ordinance and 444 without, and their caps, unit thresholds, exemptions and vacancy rules differ town by town.
This municipality's ordinance has not been read into this knowledge base. Check the DCA's survey — it names every municipality and gives the unit threshold and the increase limit for each — and then read the ordinance itself or call the rent board, before assuming rents can be reset on purchase or turnover. One statewide limit does apply everywhere: N.J.S.A. 2A:42-84.5 keeps municipal rent control off housing completed after 25 June 1987 for 30 years from completion.
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