{"id":4752,"date":"2026-05-05T00:43:15","date_gmt":"2026-05-05T00:43:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/4752\/"},"modified":"2026-05-05T00:43:15","modified_gmt":"2026-05-05T00:43:15","slug":"separated-couples-forced-to-keep-living-together-amid-housing-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/4752\/","title":{"rendered":"Separated couples forced to keep living together amid housing crisis"},"content":{"rendered":"

For the past four months, Robyn Symes’s family home has felt like a financial prison.<\/p>\n

When her marriage of almost 15 years abruptly collapsed in December, the Gold Coast mother of two started searching for a rental.<\/p>\n

But despite a revolving door of house inspections and more than 50 applications, her hunt has been fruitless.<\/p>\n

And most rentals are outside her price range anyway.<\/p>\n

“While I’m paying a mortgage, I physically can’t afford $700 a week,” Ms Symes said.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

Robyn Symes has applied for more than 50 rentals. (ABC Gold Coast: Charmayne Allison)<\/p>\n

Instead, Ms Symes has been forced to navigate the painful process of separation and mediation while living under the same roof as her ex.<\/p>\n

“There’s no real space for either one of us to heal,” she said.<\/p>\n

“It’s been the hardest and darkest four months I’ve ever experienced.”<\/p>\n

‘They simply don’t have any other options’<\/p>\n

Ms Symes is among a growing number of Australians continuing to live alongside their ex because of the housing crisis.<\/p>\n

According to Relationships Australia, there has been a “significant increase” in this trend nationally in recent years.<\/p>\n

Federal court data has also shown a gradual rise in the number of divorce applicants reporting they are continuing to live with their ex-partner post-separation, from 15 per cent in 2020-21 to 19 per cent in 2024-25.<\/p>\n

Ruth Jeffers, a family law partner with firm Robbins Watson, said this was likely just the tip of the iceberg, with housing pressures impacting people of every age and gender.<\/p>\n

“The property market, particularly on the Gold Coast and particularly since the pandemic, is really challenging,” she said.<\/p>\n

“People are continuing to live separated under the one roof because they simply don’t have any other options.”Couples fear losing ‘bargaining power’<\/p>\n

The Gold Coast currently has a vacancy rate of just 1 per cent, and has recently surpassed Sydney<\/a> as Australia’s most expensive rental market.<\/p>\n

The city’s property prices have outpaced every capital<\/a>, jumping 80 per cent in just five years.<\/p>\n

But this housing boom extends beyond the Gold Coast.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Ruth Jeffers says housing is a growing issue for separating couples. (ABC Gold Coast: Glenn Mullane)<\/p>\n

Ms Jeffers said many Australians were leaving relationships only to find they had been priced out of their own neighbourhood.<\/p>\n

Others were choosing to continue living with their ex because of fears they could lose “bargaining power” if they moved out.<\/p>\n

“The person who remains may be less inclined to negotiate, while the person who has moved out may experience tremendous cost, pressure and competition in attempting to secure a property,” Ms Jeffers said.<\/p>\n

Cohabitation makes financial sense but carries ‘ongoing risk’<\/p>\n

Relationships Australia national executive officer Nick Tebbey said, given the current economic climate, it was increasingly making “financial sense” for separated couples to continue living under the same roof.<\/p>\n

He said this was often for a finite period, while couples sorted out the division of assets or child-custody arrangements.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Nick Tebbey says it can be very difficult for separated couples to continue sharing housing. (ABC News: Stuart Carnegie)<\/p>\n

However, he warned this cohabitation could come with significant challenges, and it was crucial ex-partners set clear expectations from the beginning.<\/p>\n

“Know how you’re going to deal with issues of finances when conflicts arise. And make sure your children understand what’s happening,” Mr Tebbey said.<\/p>\n

He said there was also an “ongoing risk” of people staying in unsafe living situations because of housing pressures.<\/p>\n

“That is a really concerning trend,” he said.’There’s a lot of tension’<\/p>\n

Ms Symes never dreamed she would be in this situation.<\/p>\n

“I don’t know if this is going to be a three-week process, a four-month process, or an 18-month process,” she said.<\/p>\n

“There’s been days that I’ve got to work, and I’ve just bawled my eyes out.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Robyn Symes says it is difficult finding affordable housing. (ABC Gold Coast: Charmayne Allison)<\/p>\n

She said co-parenting her two sons with her ex had also become increasingly fraught.<\/p>\n

“Often the children don’t know who to go to for what answer,” she said.<\/p>\n

But as a home owner on a middle-class wage, Ms Symes knows there are many other Australians even more desperate than her.<\/p>\n

“How are other people that have younger children, children with disabilities [or] multiple children \u2026\u00a0finding anywhere to live?” she said.<\/p>\n

“I think there’s a lot more people hurting out there.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For the past four months, Robyn Symes’s family home has felt like a financial prison. When her marriage…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4753,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[22,21,6010,1311,6013,4541,6011,6012,6009],"class_list":["post-4752","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-austrlia","tag-couples","tag-gold-coast","tag-gold-coast-housing-market","tag-housing-market","tag-living-together","tag-relationships-australia","tag-separated"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4752","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4752"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4752\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4752"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4752"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4752"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}