This is by far the strangest task I have ever seen in Cambridge IELTS books. I have seen tasks that made me cry because of their difficulty, but this one is simply odd - the oddest. 

The prompt informs us of a trend (note the present continuous tense). In some countries (meaning not in many countries, just some of them), MORE and MORE people are acting strange. They are INCREASINGLY showing interest in the history of their houses or buildings. Has something gone wrong? What happened? When I see a task in the present continuous tense, I ask myself these questions, hoping they will lead me toward cracking the case. 

The word ‘history’ here concerns background information, including but not limited to the date of construction, the foundation of the structure, the alterations to the building over time, and the contractors. The word is not really about ancient times as in the history of civilization. Old structures are rare and protected. No one lives in the penthouse on top of the pyramids. 

To answer the first question in the task, two ideas came to my mind. First, a few years ago, in Canada, the news reported that many houses were illegally built on a sacred burial ground belonging to the Natives of Canada. This caused public outrage, the loss of property value of those homes, and financial disasters for those who had bought the houses. I looked into this further and realized that before digging a shovel of dirt, contractors must obtain a type of permission called ‘lot approval,’ which is sometimes ignored. As a result, stories like that are published, causing mass hysteria. 

Also, I heard that because of global warming, floods, tsunamis, and other natural disasters are increasing in some parts of the world, which raises concerns about the safety of houses. So, people must be afraid and want to know whether their homes are disaster-proof or can become so if they make changes to the house. All this can be a cause of this rising trend. 

I have read a lot of essays on this task, which made me realize something. I think candidates mistake the word ‘interested’ for the word ‘love.’ However, when we are interested in something, it probably means we find it important or beneficial. That is why, although candidates often present relevant main ideas, their supporting ideas make little sense or are confusing. Some of the main ideas are:

People want to connect with their houses. 

This makes no sense (to me). Are we making connections to our houses now? Also, is this a reason or an advantage? If I learn that my house has strong foundations, will I fall in love with it? The task wants reasons explaining people’s behavior, not advantages.  

Curiosity is the reason people search the background of their house.  

Well, this idea is actually good, but while supporting it, we should make sure our argument answers the question about the rising concern. If we want to talk about finding treasures or whether the house belonged to celebrities, we must explain why MORE and MORE people are doing this. 

People want to know about their ancestors. 

This one is also relevant, but its supporting ideas should be able to explain the strange behavior of more and more people searching the history of their houses. Also, how many people live in 400-year-old houses? Is the number large enough to raise an alarm and cause a trend? 

As my final point, initially, I thought the second question in the task was easy to answer. However, since I had never searched my house's history, I realized I did not know how. So, I looked it up and found several ways to find such information. One was exploring public records kept at municipalities. And the second was interviewing the neighbors.