Speaking Part 2 · PlacesForecast: May–Aug 2026
Describe a House or Apartment You Would Like to Live In
In short
“Describe a House or Apartment You Would Like to Live In” is a common IELTS Speaking Part 2 cue card. You get 1 minute to prepare and should speak for 1–2 minutes, covering all four points below. This page gives you a Band 9 model answer, an idea map so you can make it your own, the Part 3 follow-up questions with answers, and the vocabulary examiners reward.
The task card
Describe a House or Apartment You Would Like to Live In. You should say:
- •Where this house or apartment would be
- •What it would look like
- •What special features it would have
- •And explain why you would like to live there
Band 9 model answer
The home I'd love to live in one day is surprisingly specific, because I've been quietly designing it in my head for years. It's a small two-storey house on the edge of my city — close enough that I could cycle in for work and friends, but far enough out that the nights are actually dark and quiet.
From the outside it wouldn't be anything grand — I've never understood the appeal of those enormous show-off houses with rooms nobody enters. What I want is modest but extremely well thought out. The heart of it would be an internal courtyard, open to the sky, with a single tree in the middle. It's a very traditional feature in older houses in my region, and I think abandoning it was one of the great mistakes of modern construction. Every main room would open onto that courtyard, so light and air would move through the whole house naturally.
Inside, the ground floor would be one generous open space — kitchen, dining and living areas flowing together, because in every home I've loved, people always end up gathered around whoever's cooking anyway. Upstairs, just two bedrooms and the feature I'm most attached to: a small library with floor-to-ceiling shelves, a ridiculous armchair, and a window seat wide enough to nap on. I've wanted a window seat since I was about ten and read about one in a novel.
On the practical side, I'd want it built to run cheaply and cleanly — solar panels on the roof, rainwater harvesting, thick walls that keep the heat out without air conditioning roaring all day. Where I live the summers are getting harsher every year, so designing for the climate isn't a luxury anymore; it's common sense. And there'd be a proper rooftop terrace, because evenings on a rooftop — tea, breeze, half the neighbourhood doing the same — is my idea of quality of life.
As for why this particular house: I think I'm reacting against how I live now, in a cramped fourth-floor flat where the only view is the building opposite and I've never once spoken to my neighbours across the corridor. My dream house is basically the opposite of that — grounded, breathable, connected to the sky and the seasons.
Whether I'll ever build it is another question, given property prices. But I'd rather have a detailed dream and adjust it to reality than drift into whatever the market hands me. And honestly, the courtyard tree is non-negotiable.
Make it your own: three angles
A dream house designed around one feature
Pick a signature feature — courtyard, library, rooftop — and build the answer around it; one vivid obsession beats a list of ten generic rooms.
A real apartment or house you have seen
Describing a specific home you've visited or seen online keeps details concrete, and you can explain what your current home lacks by comparison.
A home defined by its location
By the sea, in the mountains, above a busy street — lead with the setting and let the design follow from it; strong Part 3 links to city versus countryside.
What the examiner is listening for
A hypothetical card, so the examiner is listening hard for conditional and future forms — "it would have", "I'd want", "whether I'll ever build it". Ground the dream in your real life (what your current home lacks) to keep it personal rather than a property brochure, and give the house one memorable signature detail they'll remember at scoring time.
Part 1 warm-up questions
- Do you live in a house or an apartment?
- What is your favourite room in your home?
- Would you prefer to live in a city centre or in the suburbs?
- What can you see from your bedroom window?
Part 3 follow-up questions & answers
Is it better to rent or to buy a home?
Financially it depends entirely on the market — in many cities now, buying means decades of debt for the privilege of ownership, while renting buys flexibility. Psychologically, though, ownership runs deep: people want to paint a wall without asking permission. My generation is increasingly renting by necessity and telling itself it's by choice, which I find a bit poignant.
Why do many people prefer houses to apartments?
Space and autonomy, mostly — a house means no neighbours through the ceiling, somewhere for children to run, often a patch of garden. There's also a status element in many cultures, where a standalone house signals success. Apartments answer back with convenience, security and location, which is why the preference often flips as people age or move to bigger cities.
How have homes in your country changed in recent decades?
They've gone vertical and shrunk. Extended families in courtyard houses have given way to nuclear families in high-rise flats, and features designed for the climate — thick walls, verandas, cross-ventilation — were traded for glass towers that depend on air conditioning. We gained convenience and lost both community and climate sense; I think architects are only now realising what was thrown away.
Should governments do more to provide affordable housing?
Yes, because the market alone demonstrably fails at it — developers earn more from luxury units, so that's what gets built, while nurses and teachers commute two hours. Public housing has an image problem from past failures, but done well, mixed into ordinary neighbourhoods, it works. Housing is infrastructure, like roads; treating it purely as an investment asset breaks cities.
Do you think smart home technology will change how we live?
It already is, though less dramatically than advertised. Automated lighting, heating and security genuinely help — especially for elderly people living independently longer. My reservation is dependency and privacy: a house that listens to everything is a strange trade for the convenience of voice-controlled curtains. I'd take good insulation over a talking fridge any day.
Is the design of a home important for family relationships?
More than people realise. Layouts quietly choreograph family life — an open kitchen keeps conversation flowing while someone cooks, whereas a home where each person has a screen in a separate room can go silent for days. I don't think design determines relationships, but it sets defaults, and most families live by their defaults.
Would you prefer a modern home or a traditional one?
My honest answer is a traditional shell with modern organs — the courtyards, thick walls and verandas of old houses were brilliant climate engineering, but I have no nostalgia for their plumbing. The best new architecture in my country is doing exactly this: reviving traditional forms with contemporary materials. Pure glass-box modernism ages badly in a hot climate.
Useful vocabulary
| Word / phrase | Meaning |
|---|---|
| spacious | having plenty of room |
| an open-plan layout | a design where kitchen, dining and living areas share one space |
| a courtyard | an open area enclosed by the walls of a building |
| floor-to-ceiling | covering the full height of a wall |
| natural light | daylight coming into a building, rather than artificial lighting |
| energy-efficient | designed to use as little energy as possible |
| within commuting distance | close enough to travel to work or school regularly |
| cramped | uncomfortably small and lacking space |
| a property ladder | the process of buying a first home and moving to better ones over time |
| non-negotiable | something you refuse to compromise on |
More cue cards
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