Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 15 · 2026-10-20

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)

Increased taxation and housing prices have made people to shift their interestst to rented appartments and homes.This situation has sparked a debate among individuals whether this is poitive or a negative development.From my point of view,it has both pros and cons.People with their own property have internal satisfaction and they fell confident in their respective society.On other hand,individuals who cannot afford to keep a house face many issues in their societies such as pressure from land lords and felling of lower thwn others.

Excessive taxation and housing prices is one of the basic reasons why people are prefering to rent a house even though some of them can afford it.An other reason to this can be arduous bureaucracy if you want to buy a home than in many countries you will have to go through tiring process which many people find exhausting and to avoid these all problems they choose to rent house.This offers few benifits to them such as they got mobility to shift their houses very easily if they sense it unconfortable or boring in living same houses.

On the other hand it also has many disadvantages.One major drawback is surge in renting prices .If everyone will choose to rent a house then things will go in wrong directions.It can cause imbalance in current market of realstate or realstate might even collapse.It may result in shortage of houses later in future.If it continues so the rich will become more richer and the poor will be traped in cycle of poverty.

In conclusion,renting houses has both merits and demerits.I believe that demerits can be controlled with proper planning,Governments should lower the taxes to help people to buy their own property and provide facilities to balance this situation.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.0

You address both questions: you suggest that high taxes and house prices, along with difficult purchasing procedures, can make renting attractive, and you discuss advantages and disadvantages. However, the response only partially fulfils the task because the question asks why owning a home is important, while much of your explanation focuses on why people rent. Your position that the situation has “both pros and cons” is clear in the introduction, but the conclusion does not firmly judge whether the importance attached to home ownership is positive or negative. Several claims, such as renting causing a housing-market collapse or trapping poorer people in poverty, are asserted without explanation. Develop the reasons people value ownership and support your overall judgement with clearer examples or reasoning.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

The response has a recognisable structure, with an introduction, separate paragraphs for reasons and disadvantages, and a conclusion. Transitions such as “On the other hand” and “In conclusion” help signal the stages of the argument. However, progression is not always clear: the opening moves from renting to the social benefits of ownership, then the next paragraph returns to reasons for renting. Some links are mechanical or unclear, including “to avoid these all problems,” and the final paragraph introduces government policy without fully connecting it to the judgement. Improve the sequence by first explaining why ownership matters, then assessing the consequences of this preference, and use clearer references to connect each claim to the previous one.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

You use some topic-related vocabulary, including “bureaucracy,” “mobility,” “imbalance,” and “cycle of poverty,” which helps communicate the main ideas. There is also an attempt to vary expression rather than relying only on basic words. However, the range is uneven, and frequent spelling and word-choice errors reduce precision: examples include “poitive,” “benifits,” “unconfortable,” and “realstate.” Some phrases are awkward or imprecise, such as “internal satisfaction,” “pressure from land lords,” and “things will go in wrong directions.” These do not usually prevent understanding, but they make the argument less natural. Check spelling carefully and learn common collocations for housing, ownership, affordability, and rental costs.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

You attempt both simple and more complex sentences, including a conditional structure in “If everyone will choose to rent a house…” and a relative clause in “which many people find exhausting.” However, complex constructions are often faulty, and errors occur frequently enough to make some sentences difficult to follow. For example, “Excessive taxation and housing prices is” has a subject–verb agreement error, while “people are prefering to rent” uses an incorrect verb form. Articles and sentence boundaries are also inconsistent, as in “to rent house” and the run-on punctuation around “prices .If.” Practise accurate agreement, verb forms, articles, and sentence punctuation, and keep longer sentences controlled rather than joining several ideas together.

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

Browse more IELTS Writing model answers or get your own writing scored by the same AI examiner.