One-third of Canadian baby boomers plan to give their kids living inheritances: survey

Credit: Sotheby’s 

Vancouverites expect their children to spend $350,000 to $750,000 on a home

A large portion of baby boomers in Canadian cities think their children can’t afford to wait for them to die.

A significant number of Canadians aged 52 to 71 are planning to or have already given their children living inheritances to buy property, according to a new survey from Sotheby’s International Realty Canada and Vancouver’s Mustel Group.

The survey was geared toward residents of Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto and Montreal.

In Vancouver alone, 36 per cent of respondents said they have given or will give a living inheritance.

Overall, 60 per cent of givers said the gift will coincide with a specific trigger, such as the sale of their financial investments (21 per cent), the sale of their primary home (17 per cent) or receiving an inheritance themselves (14 per cent).

In Vancouver, 41 per cent of living-inheritance recipients identified in the survey are 25 to 29 years old, giving it the highest percentage in that age bracket.

In a telling sign of where the Vancouver real estate market is at right now, the city led when it came to the proportion of respondents expecting to buy condominiums with their inheritance (59 per cent; Toronto placed second, with 39 per cent). It also ranked first for the price that survey participants expected their children to pay for a home: most cited somewhere between $350,000 and $750,000.