Australian women face a worsening housing crisis after separation, widowhood, and family violence, and most of the data and conversation still treats us as four different problems instead of one shared question. I am running the 2026 Single Parent Housing and Financial Wellbeing Survey to understand what women actually need, and to use those answers to build better tools and resources into Runa. The survey takes 5 to 10 minutes, responses are anonymous, and the deadline to participate is 30 August. The survey link is at the bottom of this post.
There is a conversation Australia is not having loudly enough. Women who separate, women who are widowed, women who leave violent or controlling relationships, and single mothers raising children alone all end up at the same crossroads: a question about where they will live, who will own it, and whether they will ever recover financially from a transition they did not necessarily choose.
The system treats these as four different problems. The reality is one shared question, with one heavy outcome, falling disproportionately on women.
The numbers are worse than most people realise.
What the data actually shows
In December 2025, 51 percent of single parents reliant on Parenting Payment Single were renting in the private market. The percentage who owned outright or were buying their own home nearly halved between 2002 and 2025, from 21 percent down to 13 percent.
Single parent families have the highest rate of housing stress of any family type in Australia: 22 percent, compared to 6.9 percent for couples with dependent children. Lower-quartile rents (the rents the lowest earners pay) rose nearly 18 percent across 2021 and 2022, compared to an 11 percent average increase. The women paying these rents are the women least able to absorb the rise.
The picture after separation specifically is even sharper. According to Grattan Institute analysis of HILDA data, only 44 percent of women buy a family home within 10 years of separating, compared to 55 percent of men. Women who leave relationships experience an average 20 percent drop in household income. For single mothers fleeing violence, the drop is 34 percent.
These are not edge cases. There are around three quarters of a million single parent families with dependent children in Australia, and 79 percent of them are headed by mothers. More than 1.2 million children live in single parent households. The rate of child poverty in single parent homes (37 percent) is more than three times the rate for children in couple-family homes (12 percent).
What it looks like further down the road
Housing insecurity in your forties or fifties does not just disappear when you reach retirement age. It compounds.
The Women's Budget Statement, released in May 2026, confirms what every woman in my office already suspects: women approaching retirement have 25.7 percent less superannuation than men. That gap places women at significantly greater risk of poverty, housing stress, and homelessness in older age. This is why women over 55 are now the fastest-growing cohort of homeless Australians. It is also why the gender pay gap, currently sitting at 11.5 percent overall, climbs to 29.6 percent for women aged 40 to 54, and is actually worsening for women aged 55 and over. The earlier a woman is pulled out of paid work for caring responsibilities or a relationship breakdown, the harder it is to recover, and the further behind she falls at every stage that follows.
The Australian Government has recognised this. The Treasury's Homes for Australia: A National Plan, released on 28 May 2026, is a $47 billion commitment to rebuild the housing system, with explicit priorities around levelling the playing field for first home buyers, growing social and affordable housing, and supporting people affected by family and domestic violence.
These reforms matter, and they are starting to deliver. Since May 2022, more than 121,000 women have achieved home ownership through what is now called the 5% Deposit Scheme, including over 4,000 single women with dependent children. Of the women in the brand-new Help to Buy scheme, 55 percent are women. The expanded scheme settings, with no income caps and no waitlists, have opened doors that were closed to women just a year ago.
But policy lags behind lived experience. And women cannot wait for the system to catch up.
What this looks like in real life
The data is one thing. The lived experience is another.
It looks like a woman who paid the mortgage for fifteen years finding out her name was never on the title.
It looks like a single mother working two jobs and still being told by the bank that her income does not "service" the loan she would need to keep the family home.
It looks like a widow holding life insurance funds she does not know what to do with, while well-meaning family members give conflicting advice.
It looks like a woman leaving a financially controlling partner with no bank account in her name, no credit file in her name, and no idea where to start.
It looks like a separated mother of two paying $500 or more a week in rent and receiving $108 in Commonwealth Rent Assistance, with the gap eating her food budget.
Every woman I work with arrives carrying a version of one of these stories. And almost every one of them tells me the same thing: I did not know it was going to be this hard. I did not know where to ask. I did not even know what to ask.
That gap is what I am trying to close.
Why I am running the survey
The 2026 Single Parent Housing and Financial Wellbeing Survey is not a marketing exercise. It is research. I want to know, in detail, what women in transition actually need to make informed financial decisions about housing.
The data I find will be used to:
- Build new tools, calculators, and resources into Runa, the free financial literacy app I created for Australian women
- Identify gaps in education, planning support, and decision-making frameworks that women say are missing
- Shape future Matilda Tree content so it speaks directly to the questions women are actually carrying
- Contribute to the broader public conversation about housing security for Australian women
Runa is free, and it will stay free. It exists because the financial literacy women need at the hardest moments of their lives is not available anywhere else without a price tag, a sales pitch, or a long wait to see a professional. Every tool and resource I build into it comes from the lived experience of women like the ones who will fill in this survey.
If you take 5 to 10 minutes to answer it honestly, you are not just helping yourself. You are shaping what is available to the next woman who finds herself standing where you stood.
What the survey covers
The survey asks about your housing situation, your financial confidence, the decisions you have faced or are facing, where you have struggled to find information, and what you wish had existed when you needed it most.
You do not need to be in crisis to take it. You do not need to be a single parent. You do not need to have separated, been widowed, or experienced violence. The survey is open to any Australian woman who has navigated a major financial transition or is currently navigating one.
You also do not need to have all the answers. The questions are designed for honesty, not for performance.
The details
Time required: 5 to 10 minutes An**onymous: **Yes. No name or contact details required. Deadline: 30 August 2026 Survey link: Take the survey here
If you have a few minutes today and the willingness to share something honest, you will help me build something more useful for women in the future.
And if you cannot take the survey, please share it
Not every woman who reads this will be in a position to fill it in. Some are mid-crisis. Some are not in transition right now. Some have already done so much emotional work that one more question feels like too much.
If that is you, the most useful thing you can do is forward this post to one woman you know who might. A friend who is quietly separating. A colleague who lost her husband last year. A neighbour who has been single-parenting alone for longer than anyone realises.
The more women who fill this in, the better the tools that come out the other side.
You are not alone in this
I started this post by saying the system treats women's housing crisis as four different problems. The women in my office know the truth. It is one problem, and it has been quietly compounding for decades.
The good news is that things are starting to shift. The Women's Budget Statement, the Homes for Australia National Plan, the expanded 5% Deposit Scheme, the new Help to Buy scheme, and the growing visibility of single parent financial stress are all signals that this conversation is finally being heard at the highest levels.
But policy change is slow. The tools, education, and decision-making support that women need today are something we can build now, with the right information.
That is what the survey is for. And that is why I am asking for 10 minutes of your time.
Take the 2026 Single Parent Housing and Financial Wellbeing Survey
If you would like to know more about Runa, the free financial literacy app this research will help shape, you can sign up at runaapp.com.au. It is genuinely free, with no broker calls or sales pitches.
If you would like a confidential, no-obligation conversation about your own housing situation, I am here. Book at matildatree.com.au.
Sources and references
- Single Mother Families Australia, Profile of Single Mother Families (May 2026): smfa.com.au
- Australian Government Treasury, Women's Budget Statement 2026-27 (12 May 2026): budget.gov.au
- Australian Government Treasury, Homes for Australia: A National Plan (28 May 2026): treasury.gov.au/publication/p2026-773858
- ABC News, Single mothers and shared housing (May 2026): abc.net.au
This article is general information only and does not constitute financial, legal or tax advice. Please speak to a licensed financial adviser, solicitor and your superannuation fund about your specific circumstances.
Rielle Berglund is a mortgage broker and the founder of Matilda Tree Finance. She works with Australian women navigating major financial transitions, including separation, divorce, terminal illness and bereavement. She is also the creator of Runa, a free financial literacy app built for exactly this stage of life. Book a confidential conversation with Rielle at matildatree.com.au or start with Runa, free, at runaapp.com.au.
