Baton change of houses to hit $40bn

By By Kim Christian, From: AAP, 1 April 2010

AN UNPRECEDENTED "baton change" of wealth is expected over the next 15 years as the older generation hands over as much as $400 billion worth of property to their children, a new report says.

An ageing population and high home ownership rates will combine to produce a "perfect storm" of wealth transfer between generations, the Inherited Housing Report 2010, released by Bankwest, shows.

"Our research projects that there will be a 95 per cent increase in the number of estates with housing assets by 2025," Bankwest Retail chief executive Vittoria Shortt says.

"In 2009 there was an estimated $16 billion of housing inheritance and our report shows this could increase by 93 per cent to $31 billion a year by 2025."

Ms Shortt said veterans and baby boomers were now sitting on housing assets worth between $1.5 trillion and $2 trillion.