Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 15 · 2026-09-03

IELTS Writing Task 2 question

In some countries owning a home rather than renting one is very important for people. Why might this be the case? Do you think this is a positive or negative situation?

Student answer (Band 5.5)

In some places of the world, people deem 'owning a property' as a more important thing compared to renting one. The primary reason is for Investment, rather than 'subscription' model of owning things. This opinion is neither negative nor positive, as people might have different reasonings for their 'buy versus rent' believe.

The topic 'we own nothing' has been circulating around these days, mainly as essay titles or video essays. This argues most things that we have are subscription based. Instead of buying cassettes for movies or vinyl records for musics, which we have permanent ownership to, we subscribe to streaming platforms. This is inflict the idea that 'hypothetically, if this particular service no longer exists, what does one even have?' This reason by itself is enough to make people change their view of 'buy versus rent'. The same logic applies to housings, as owning a house can be seen as a long term investment and at some point, a passive income if it is being rented out, which are both beneficial.

The preference to own a house or rent is neither a good nor bad thing, as people have different circumstances and belief. For people who travel and move a lot, heavily investing in one property might not be as beneficial as to simply renting a house for a certain period of time. Even for long term stay, there exist people who believe that property is not a liquid and good investment, hence they might choose to rent. Neither of these are a bad thing, just preference, believe, and circumstances differences.

To conclude the phenomenon of people's inclination to buy or rent property, which is neither good nor bad on both sides, the main reason for people's inclination to own property is driven by the asset's value of long term investment.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

The response addresses both parts of the prompt: reasons for the importance of home ownership and an opinion on whether this is positive or negative. However, the development is somewhat uneven. While the comparison to the 'subscription model' is an interesting angle, the explanation of why home ownership is important could be more deeply explored beyond just 'investment'. The position is clear, but the argument that it is 'neither negative nor positive' is a bit neutral and lacks the depth of analysis expected at higher bands. To improve, ensure that the reasons are more directly linked to the social or economic context of the countries mentioned in the prompt.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0

The essay is logically organized into paragraphs, each with a clear focus. Cohesive devices are used, such as 'The primary reason', 'Instead of', and 'To conclude', which help guide the reader. However, some transitions feel slightly mechanical, and the flow between the introduction and the body paragraphs could be smoother. The referencing is generally clear, though some sentences, such as 'This is inflict the idea', are grammatically awkward, which slightly disrupts the cohesion. Overall, the progression of ideas is coherent, but the use of linking words could be more varied and natural to achieve a higher band.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The vocabulary is generally adequate for the task, with some attempts at more sophisticated phrasing like 'passive income' and 'liquid investment'. However, there are several instances of word-choice errors and non-standard collocations, such as 'subscription model of owning things' and 'belief' used as a noun where 'beliefs' or 'opinions' would be more appropriate. The phrase 'This is inflict the idea' is a significant error in word form. While the range is sufficient to convey the message, more precise and academic vocabulary would elevate the response.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

The essay uses a mix of simple and complex sentence structures. There are several grammatical errors that occur throughout the text, such as 'people deem... as a more important thing', 'This is inflict the idea', and 'Neither of these are a bad thing' (should be 'is'). While these errors do not prevent the reader from understanding the main points, they are frequent enough to impact the overall accuracy. To reach a higher band, you should focus on subject-verb agreement and ensuring that complex structures are formed correctly without errors in word form or tense.

See this exact question answered at other band scores — the same prompt compared across bands.

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