american tower corporation and subsidiaries notes to consolidated financial statements 2014 ( continued ) 7 . derivative financial instruments under the terms of the credit facility , the company is required to enter into interest rate protection agreements on at least 50% ( 50 % ) of its variable rate debt . under these agreements , the company is exposed to credit risk to the extent that a counterparty fails to meet the terms of a contract . such exposure is limited to the current value of the contract at the time the counterparty fails to perform . the company believes its contracts as of december 31 , 2004 are with credit worthy institutions . as of december 31 , 2004 , the company had two interest rate caps outstanding with an aggregate notional amount of $ 350.0 million ( each at an interest rate of 6.0% ( 6.0 % ) ) that expire in 2006 . as of december 31 , 2003 , the company had three interest rate caps outstanding with an aggregate notional amount of $ 500.0 million ( each at a rate of 5.0% ( 5.0 % ) ) that expired in 2004 . as of december 31 , 2004 and 2003 , there was no fair value associated with any of these interest rate caps . during the year ended december 31 , 2003 , the company recorded an unrealized loss of approximately $ 0.3 million ( net of a tax benefit of approximately $ 0.2 million ) in other comprehensive loss for the change in fair value of cash flow hedges and reclassified $ 5.9 million ( net of a tax benefit of approximately $ 3.2 million ) into results of operations . during the year ended december 31 , 2002 , the company recorded an unrealized loss of approximately $ 9.1 million ( net of a tax benefit of approximately $ 4.9 million ) in other comprehensive loss for the change in fair value of cash flow hedges and reclassified $ 19.5 million ( net of a tax benefit of approximately $ 10.5 million ) into results of operations . hedge ineffectiveness resulted in a gain of approximately $ 1.0 million for the year ended december 31 , 2002 , which is recorded in other expense in the accompanying consolidated statement of operations . the company records the changes in fair value of its derivative instruments that are not accounted for as hedges in other expense . the company did not reclassify any derivative losses into its statement of operations for the year ended december 31 , 2004 and does not anticipate reclassifying any derivative losses into its statement of operations within the next twelve months , as there are no amounts included in other comprehensive loss as of december 31 , 2004 . 8 . commitments and contingencies lease obligations 2014the company leases certain land , office and tower space under operating leases that expire over various terms . many of the leases contain renewal options with specified increases in lease payments upon exercise of the renewal option . escalation clauses present in operating leases , excluding those tied to cpi or other inflation-based indices , are straight-lined over the term of the lease . ( see note 1. ) future minimum rental payments under non-cancelable operating leases include payments for certain renewal periods at the company 2019s option because failure to renew could result in a loss of the applicable tower site and related revenues from tenant leases , thereby making it reasonably assured that the company will renew the lease . such payments in effect at december 31 , 2004 are as follows ( in thousands ) : year ending december 31 .

$ 106116: 2006: 106319
2007: 106095
2008: 106191
2009: 106214
thereafter: 1570111
total: 2101046

aggregate rent expense ( including the effect of straight-line rent expense ) under operating leases for the years ended december 31 , 2004 , 2003 and 2002 approximated $ 118741000 , $ 113956000 , and $ 109644000 , respectively. .

Questions:
what is the net change in rent expense from 2003 to 2004?
what percentage change does this represent?

Answers:
4785000
4.2%