In short:
Single-income households can struggle to meet housing costs, and older women are one group at risk of housing insecurity.
asserted
women → struggle → insecurity
The singles tax refers to extra costs people pay when they can't split expenses like couples can.
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couples → refer → expenses
Housing experts say Australia also has a lack of affordable, suitable dwellings for singles.
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Australia → say → singles
By her 70s, Louise Taylor had hoped her house would be more than a roof over her head, but somewhere she could happily call home.
uncertain
she → hop → head
But after "knockback after knockback" when she was trying to find a rental on the private market five years ago, she has been forced to accept her small duplex, north of Brisbane, is all she can afford.
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she → try → Brisbane
"I was at desperate times and I went, 'You know what, I don't care, I just have to do it'," she recollected.
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she → go → it
"I was so grateful … then I'm looking around thinking, 'Where am I going to put my lounge room?'"
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I → look → room
Ms Taylor is the first to acknowledge she is one of the lucky ones and says she's on the housing waitlist and has contacted other housing organisations to see if they could help.
uncertain
they → acknowledge → organisations
But on the pension, she is fearful about what the next rent rise will mean, and says if it gets any more expensive, she believes she will have no choice but to move in with her adult daughter.
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she → mean → daughter
She is also scared that if she cannot afford to rent a house on her own, she may have no choice but to move into a share house.
uncertain
she → afford → house
Ms Taylor believes she would have had more success finding a rental and more power on the private rental market if she was applying in a couple.
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she → believe → couple
Singles tax costing people hundreds of dollars a month
That concept is known as the singles tax – the idea that single-income households do not benefit from the same cost-sharing benefits when it comes to things like rent and bills as a couple does.
Brisbane financial advisor Michael Khouri said there was also the time and effort factor to consider, as well as that inability to share resources.
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Khouri → cost → resources
"If somebody's single and they're trying to do everything themselves, they're usually a bit more time poor," he said.
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he → try → everything
He said he also saw people who had just come out of a separation struggling to fund separate homes – either renting or buying – especially as the cost of housing continued to rise.
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cost → say → housing
"Fifteen years ago, I'd find that probably half or maybe say 30 to 40 per cent of their expenses was housing — and now it's just getting higher and higher."
More than half of Australians living alone are women, and around half of those women are aged 65 or older.
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half → find → women
Older women are also a growing group at risk of experiencing housing distress or homelessness.
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women → grow → distress
The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare reports that women and girls make up 60 per cent of the people seeking assistance from homelessness services.
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women → report → services
And the number of homeless women aged over 55 has surged, with earlier census data pointing to an approximately 40 per cent increase over the decade from 2011.
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data → age → 2011
Single, older women at risk of housing insecurity
The Housing Older Women's Network's Maggie Shambrook said many women who fell into that cohort were living invisibly — couch-surfing or living in vans as they searched for an affordable, suitable home.
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they → say → home
Ms Shambrook said systemic issues including having worked in lower-paid professions or participated in caring unpaid caring work, along with the difficulty of building an asset base, contributed to this.
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issues → say → this
And as Ms Taylor had experienced, there was also the issue of finding something suitable and affordable for a single person, especially as they aged.
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they → experience → person
"Your mobility does change as you get older … your ability to navigate obstacles becomes less and less," Ms Shambrook explained.
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Shambrook → change → obstacles
Ms Shambrook noted there was also the difficulty of finding a home in an area women wanted to live in, and in a community they wanted to connect with.
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they → note → community
The lack of affordable, smaller homes which suit single people, in well-located suburbs is an issue also confronting housing policy experts.
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which → suit → experts
The Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute (AHURI)'s Tom Alves said that "missing middle" style of home remained stubbornly difficult to build — largely because it was less profitable than apartments or detached homes.
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it → say → apartments
"And then into the mix of that of course is the whole politics around in some neighbourhoods as well," he added.
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he → add → neighbourhoods
Dr Alves said it was important to acknowledge the kind of home a single person wanted would change depending on their age, so a variety of home types was needed.
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variety → say → types
He said he believed government intervention to help increase the amount of affordable housing was needed and pointed to the Housing Australia Future Fund as one example of that.
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intervention → say → that
That $10 billion fund was announced in 2023, with a commitment to help deliver tens of thousands of social and affordable homes by mid-2029.
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fund → announce → mid-2029
Questions have been asked about how affordable some of those homes really are.
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some → ask → homes
In Queensland, where Ms Taylor is based, the government has a target of delivering 53,500 social and community homes by 2044.
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government → base → 2044
But as she contemplates a bleak future beyond her next rent rise, those promises of new homes are too far away to be of much comfort for her.
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promises → contemplate → her
The Aporia