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Full-service Calgary real estate & property management with Christopher Kellett, Power Properties. Free valuations & tools at theChristopher.ca.

Buy, sell, invest, or have your property managed — backed by data & experience since 2007.

10/08/2026

Alberta REALTORS®: AREA has two scholarships for your kids and grandkids. $2,500 toward first-year post-secondary, or up to $3,700 toward a real estate licence.

Grandchildren count for both, which a lot of people miss. Apply by October 23: https://albertarealtor.ca/scholarships

~Christopher
Power Properties Ltd.

08/21/2026

Save this for the day you catch yourself browsing listings "just to look." 📌

Five questions I put to every STR buyer before we talk properties: 1) Cash flow or appreciation - which actually matters to you? 2) How much capital, all-in - purchase, furnishing, licensing? 3) What return makes this worth your time? 4) Will you use it personally - and how often? 5) What's your exit timeline?

If question 5 has no answer, you're not ready to write an offer - and that's fine. Want to run these against a real Calgary listing? Send me one and we'll do it together.

General information, not investment advice - confirm your situation with your own professional.

08/19/2026

Here's the part of STR compliance nobody puts on a spreadsheet: if the property isn't legally registered and licensed, CRA can disallow every deduction on it. Management fees, mortgage interest, utilities, insurance, cleaning, repairs, furnishings, advertising - the lot.

A licence runs $289-$627. Operating unlicensed is a $1,000 fine per offence - and the disallowed deductions can dwarf both numbers. Compliance isn't red tape; it's money.

Running an STR that isn't licensed yet? Let's get it sorted before tax season - I just went through the process myself.

General information, not tax advice - confirm with your own accountant or tax professional.

08/13/2026

Building a basement suite with the City's Secondary Suite Incentive Program? Up to $10,000 toward construction and registration - genuinely useful money.

The catch almost nobody reads: a suite built with that grant cannot be operated as a short-term rental for two years. I keep meeting homeowners mid-build whose whole plan was "Airbnb the basement." Better to know now than at licensing time.

Mid-build right now? Happy to look at your timeline and options before you furnish it.

General information, not legal or financial advice - confirm details with your own professional.

08/12/2026

"It must cost a fortune to license an Airbnb now." It doesn't.

Primary residence: $172 + $117 fire inspection fee = $289 to start, $248 to renew. Non-primary (investor): $510 + $117 = $627 to start, $377 to renew. Yes, investors pay ~2.5x more - that's the City drawing a line between hosting your own home and running a business. Either way, it's a smaller line item than most owners assume.

Want the full compliance picture for your property - licence, fire inspection, insurance? Send me the address and I'll map it out.

08/08/2026

Quick - picture a "short-term rental." You pictured a weekend, right?

Under Calgary's bylaw, short-term means anything up to 180 consecutive days. Nearly six months. The corporate stay, the travelling-nurse placement, the between-homes rental - under 180 days, it's an STR and it needs a licence.

Setting up a mid-length rental this year? Message me before you list it and I'll tell you which licence it needs.

08/05/2026

Calgary did NOT ban investment short-term rentals. 👆 What Council approved is a conditional pause on new non-primary residence licences - and it only switches on if purpose-built rental vacancy drops below 2.5%. Vacancy is running around 4.8-5.1%, with forecasts of 5.9-6.2%. It never applied to primary-residence hosts or to existing licences.

Swipe for the straight version. I sat in on the City's bylaw briefing and CREB's STR session, and I'm going through the licensing process on my own property right now - so if you're weighing a purchase, I can show you exactly what the process looks like. What's holding you back: the rules, or the numbers?

07/29/2026

Thinking about buying a place in Calgary to run as an Airbnb? The rules changed this year — and there's one thing almost everyone gets wrong.

There's a "moratorium" on new investor short-term rental licences that people keep mentioning. It's real, but it hasn't kicked in — it only activates if Calgary's rental vacancy rate drops below 2.5%, and we're well above that. So the door is still open for now.

What has changed matters if you're running the numbers: investor licences cost about 3x a primary-residence one, fire inspections and insurance verification are now required, and — this one catches condo owners — a City licence doesn't override your condo's own bylaws.

I went to the City's session on this and put together a plain-English breakdown. If you're weighing whether an STR still makes sense, or whether a long-term tenant is the better play, message me — happy to run through it with you.

07/09/2026

Ever wonder why so many people are moving to Calgary? 👀

A single-family home, by the numbers:
🏡 Calgary — ~$738,560
🏙️ Toronto — ~$1,151,900
🌲 Vancouver — ~$1,853,800

A house in Vancouver costs about 2.5x what it does here. Same paycheque, very different lifestyle.

Know someone thinking about making the move? Tag them 👇

(Benchmark data via CREB Chief Economist Ann-Marie Lurie, 2026 Mid-Year Update.)

07/07/2026

Good news if you own a detached home in Calgary 🏡

Per the latest CREB data (Chief Economist Ann-Marie Lurie, 2026 Mid-Year Update), detached homes are still in a seller's market: inventory is down 7%, there's just 2.4 months of supply, and more than half of listings are selling. Your house still holds its value.

Thinking about making a move? I'll run you a free, no-obligation valuation — comment "VALUE" or send me a message.

(Source: CREB Chief Economist Ann-Marie Lurie, 2026 Mid-Year Update.)

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Calgary, AB
T2T5H8

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