IELTS Essay: Owning or Renting a Home

Before you begin writing, you should think about some creative ideas about the topic. You can use those ideas when developing your paragraph 1 and paragraph 2 of your essay. You can even search for articles on the internet about these questions. Some questions to think about are: 

• Why do people rent homes?
• Why do people own homes?
• Is there any other reason for any of these?
• Who is able and who is unable to to rent or buy?

In many developed and developing countries around the world, homeownership has become a symbol of being in the middle class and making it out of poverty. People judge each other based on the simple fact of owning a piece of property, its size, its location, or even its cost. This has led to individuals in the lower classes being dehumanized and, in some places, completely taken out of the economic ecosystem. I believe this trend is harmful, and could even lead to social instability if not changed.

At first, property has become a symbol of the middle class mainly thanks to America and the American Dream, which has spread around the globe through media, movies, music and art. The American Dream represented the belief that every individual in the US has the right to have a decent life, own a home and live happily. Because of this, people have been pressured by society to take massive loans, and mortgage their whole life to the banks, in order to purchase that single home of their dreams. This whole ideology has expanded around the world. In China, these days people have massive pressure to own a house, to the extent that young women would refuse to get married if their partner has no property under his name. This devalues the whole meaning of relationship and love and in a way destroys the whole porpoise of marriage, which is for two young people to build a legacy together in an equal manner. It has definitely hurt the foundation of family and society.

A second reason why housing has become a real necessity in people’s lives is because of its investment value. Looking at any country around the world, the value of housing in just one generation has increased multiple times over. In some countries with unstable economies or complicated laws and regulations, property has been the only real and actual way to invest and grow your wealth. For example, people who used to own housing in cities like Macau or Hong Kong, have become literally millionaires, as their house or apartment price skyrocketed to unthinkable values. Although this might be a good outcome for those who own the property, young people and the young generation find it increasingly difficult to purchase an apartment, especially in those big cities. This leads to those same young people living under one roof with their parents even after their thirties. I believe that this is definitely not the right development and it hurts young peoples’ confidence and self-esteem.

Overall, I strongly believe that owning a property should be a choice. Perhaps more government policies for creating affordable housing and a system of long-term renting like in Australia should be implemented and people should be left to choose what they would like to invest their money in throughout their life.