La dueña del piso me dijo que el alquiler sube un poco en enero.

Because the owner is female. In Spanish, dueño means owner and changes form depending on the person’s gender:

• el dueño = the male owner
• la dueña = the female owner

So la dueña del piso means the female owner of the flat/apartment.

A more formal alternative is la propietaria.

In Spain, piso very often means flat/apartment. That is the meaning here.

It can also mean floor in other contexts, but in everyday Spanish from Spain, un piso is a very common word for a flat.

So:

• la dueña del piso = the landlady / the owner of the flat

In many Latin American countries, learners are more likely to hear words like apartamento or departamento instead.

Because de + el contracts to del in Spanish.

So:

• de el piso → del piso

This contraction is required.

Compare:

• del = de + el
• al = a + el

But this only happens with el, not with la:

• de la casa ✔
• del piso ✔

Me dijo means told me or literally said to me.

Breakdown:

• me = to me
• dijo = said / told

So the sentence is reporting something the landlady said to the speaker.

Notice the difference:

• dijo = he/she said
• me dijo = he/she told me / said to me

The me is an indirect object pronoun.

Because dijo is the preterite form of decir, so it refers to a completed action in the past:

• dice = he/she says
• dijo = he/she said

So me dijo tells us that the speaking happened at some past moment.

In Spain, you may also hear me ha dicho in some situations, especially if the speaker sees it as connected to the present, for example something said today. But me dijo is completely natural.

Here que means that and introduces the reported statement.

• me dijo que... = she told me that...

Spanish normally keeps this que after verbs like:

• decir = to say
• contar = to tell
• pensar = to think
• creer = to believe

In English, that is often optional:

• She told me that the rent is going up
• She told me the rent is going up

In Spanish, que is generally not omitted here.

Good question. Spanish often uses the present tense to talk about the near future or a scheduled/expected future event, especially when there is a clear time expression like en enero.

So:

• el alquiler sube en enero = the rent goes up in January
• el alquiler subirá en enero = the rent will go up in January

Both are possible.

Using sube here sounds very natural and can feel a bit more immediate or matter-of-fact.

Literally, subir can mean to go up, to rise, or to climb, depending on context.

Here it means increases or goes up in price.

So with prices, costs, rent, bills, etc., subir is very common:

• Los precios suben = Prices go up
• La gasolina sube = Petrol goes up
• El alquiler sube = The rent goes up

So yes, the core idea is going up, but in this sentence it means increasing.

Here el alquiler means the rent — the amount of money paid for the flat.

Depending on context, alquiler can also refer more generally to rental or lease/renting, but in this sentence it clearly means the rent price.

Related words:

• alquilar = to rent
• de alquiler = for rent / rental

In Spain, el alquiler is the normal everyday word for rent.

Un poco means a little or a bit.

In this sentence, it modifies sube:

• sube un poco = goes up a bit

That position is very natural in Spanish. It comes after the verb here.

Examples:

• Sube un poco = It goes up a bit
• Es un poco caro = It’s a bit expensive

So un poco is just softening the statement: the increase is small.

Because when naming months after en, Spanish normally does not use an article.

• en enero = in January
• en mayo = in May
• en diciembre = in December

That is the standard pattern.

You can see articles with months in other structures, but not normally in this one.

Yes, often it could.

Literally, it means the female owner of the flat, but in natural English that may well be the landlady, depending on context.

That said, dueña focuses on ownership, not specifically on the landlord-tenant role. So:

• la dueña del piso = the owner of the flat
• in many situations: the landlady

If you wanted a word closer to landlord/landlady, Spanish often uses casero/casera in everyday speech, though usage varies by region.

Because me dijo que is simply reporting information, and the clause after it is presented as a statement of fact or expected fact.

So Spanish uses the indicative:

• me dijo que el alquiler sube...

The subjunctive is more likely when there is doubt, emotion, purpose, command, or some other trigger.

For example:

• Me dijo que viniera = She told me to come

That is different: there, que viniera expresses a command or instruction, so the subjunctive appears.

But in your sentence, she is just telling you information, so the indicative sube is correct.