IELTS Writing Task 2 – Housing shortage in big cities can cause severe social consequences
Housing shortage in big cities can cause severe social consequences. Some people
think only government action can solve this problem.
To what extent do you agree or disagree？
You should spend about 40 minutes on this task.
You should write at least 250 words.
IELTS Writing Task 2/ IELTS Essay Sample
Sample Answer 1:
Big cities act as magnets for everyone. Therefore it is increasingly difficult for ordinary
people to have somewhere to call home in big cities due to housing shortage,
especially the lack of affordable housing. Some people think only government has the
power to solve this problem. I completely agree with this statement.
The main reason for housing shortage in large cities is the burgeoning urban
population. The situation goes from bad to worse as each year millions of job seekers
rush into the city to try their lucky break and the majority of them eventually get
settled down, which makes housing shortage even more serious. Careful planning of
cities is required to address the issue and obviously, only the government has the
power to address this problem.
Even if the population were indeed under control, we still need more apartment
buildings to house people who have already worked and lived in the city without
decent housing. Again, only the government can decide which old buildings should be
demolished to make way for new ones and which area could be designated for
residential housing development. Of course, individuals can have their voice heard,
but the final decision has to be made by the government.
Another reason that causes housing shortage is those in the real estate business raise
the cost of housing exorbitantly. To stop those profit-making housing developers and
real estate brokers from pushing up the prices of housing, effective rules and
regulations are needed, which can be done by the government. As for the housing
projects for low-income families, we can only depend on the government, too.
To put it in a nutshell, I pen down saying that only the government action can solve
the problem of housing shortage in big cities.
It is not uncommon across the world that people flood into metropolis seeking for better working opportunities. One inescapable consequence of such massive migration is the house shortage, which again brought about a series of chain effect: soaring house prices, unbearable burden on the working class, lower living quality, to name but a few. Therefore, governments are burdened with the task to provide effective and proper solution. However, individuals as well as corporations all have a role to play.
Certainly, government, with all the resources at its disposal, plays an essential part in tackling the problem. This is decided by the nature of government. In the primitive age, there was no such thing as government. As activities of human beings became more complex, a middler is need to coordinate and manage the tribe. Consequently, people give out some of their rights to form this mediator, which is now understand us government. So government is such a body empowered by its people to organize and take responsibility for the social affairs. Solving social problems, such as house shortage is a required function and a crucial responsibility of government.
However, that is not to say that government should fight alone in the battle against the “hose shortage”. After all, citizens themselves are the direct victims and beneficiaries in this battle. Actually, there is much can be done by us to alleviate the house pressure. For one thing, in it lie in our hand to choose where to live. We can choose to live in other less crowed yet equally developed cities. For example, in China, the medium cities like Tsing Dao, Chong Qing, or Xia Men are ones that in need of intelligent and skilled people. The environment there is more suitable to live and more jobs are available. As a matter of fact, as more and more people crowed in big cities, the job market there has already saturated.
Also, The corporation can make a different regarding the house shortage. One possible approach is to build infrastructures like market or retails stores in the satellite cities around. Another practical strategy is to build branch companies in small cities where land price is cheap. In that way, companies can save a sum of money buying the land, and more job vacancies are created in small city, thus attracting more job hunters.
To conclude, it is government’s essential role to solve the social problem since government can pool resources of all sorts. But, bearing in minds that we are living in a “one for all, all for one” society. If each one make a small sacrifice, the problem will be solved soon. In addition, corporation can also be counted on.
Sample Answer 3:
The population in cities is constantly increasing, and thus housing crisis is a most common problem big cities are facing today. This is a major concern for governments as it not only increase the cost of living but also affects the quality of life for its residents. I do agree that, only governments can solve this problem by taking various measures, such as, restricting landed houses to save the space, encouraging vertical residential buildings and gradually expanding the city.
In the olden days, people lived in landed independent houses as there were lots of spaces in the city. However, this is not possible in the modern cities as the city population is increasing rapidly, and resulting in a space shortage situation for accommodating housing for all. One of the action governments can take is to discourage building new landed houses and encourage people to live in apartment flats. For instance, Singapore government has built thousands of high-floor residential flats through housing development board to accommodate its ever-growing residents in an affordable way. It also stopped permission for building new landed houses to deal with space crunch.
Some governments are also looking at options for expanding the city to create more residential properties. For example, Bangalore, one of the fast growing cities in India is continuously expanding by incorporating more residential properties and other infrastructure at the outskirts of the city, which gradually becomes part of the growing city. However, this option is viable only when there are enough spaces surrounding the city. For cities like Hong-Kong and Singapore, which are islands, the only option is to grow vertically within the city. Solving housing shortage is an issue that requires proper planning and big investment and residence of a big city has very little to do and the government seems like the appropriate authority to solve this problem.
In conclusion, the cities are growing rapidly and so the residents of the city also grow. Thus, it is the responsibility of governments to take appropriate measures to create better living place at an affordable price for its city residents.
Model Answer 4:
Nowadays, as the population bulge in big cities, individuals are facing the severe problem of housing shortage consequently. However, whether it is the authority’s obligation to address the difficulty remains a controversial issue. I agree with the view that as housing is a kind of basic human need, authority should shoulder the responsibility to make a difference.
First, it is obvious that housing is the essential part of the human well-being. If people are always struggling to find the ideal place to live, how could they expect to settle up and realise their other accomplishments? Besides, what is worse is that the frequent movement of population will probably lead to the social disruption.
Moreover, we should not forget that only the government has the ability to tackle the issue because it can pool all the social resources, like manpower, facilities, financial aid to make plans, lay down regulation and carry out the policy. Some countries, like Germany, did the great job to stabilise the price of the housing by means of tax leverage in order to make the housing affordable in recent years. Therefore, we should learn the experience to enhance our social welfare system.
That is not to say that the house can be got for free. As the most expensive commodity for most ordinary people, citizens still need to take efforts to earn enough money to choose what quality of houses they can afford. But basically, this dream should be feasible with the help of various national policies, such as bank loan.
In sum, government should play their roles to maintain a healthy housing market for ordinary people; meanwhile, citizens should be industrial to earn their livings. Only by doing so can we ensure that we can live in the guaranteed and energetic society.
Model Answer 5:
In this 21 century, more and more people migrate into cities in order to find jobs, based on this situation,the amount of housing shortage in big cities are getting increases. While the majority of people think that only government can solve this problem, I partly agree with this statement. This essay endeavors to promptly give the ideas from both sides of the controversy.
There are several reasons why only government action can solve this problem. Firstly, only government can limit the number of migrations. Most of the migrants think that they could find some jobs in cities, but eventually they could not find any job, so they continue to stay in cities in order to search for other opportunities. While more and more people doing the same thing, they did not contribute anything to the society, but only stay at home, it makes others who have a job but hardly ever to find a house.
However, companies of real estate could also play an important role in this case. They could build some practical and economical houses instead of building those attractive and high price houses. Also, individuals can solve this problem by themselves. For instance, they can rent a room from landlord to live in there in a short- term period. As we know, renting a small room is cheaper than buying a house, you do not have to afford and pay for your house debt every month.
In conclusion, even though the housing – shortage is not a problem that we can solve immediately, but I believe that if government and individuals work together, this problem will be solved very soon.
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(Collected; Source: Internet)
