The housing shortage in big cities can cause severe social consequences. Some people think only government action can solve this problem. To what extent do you agree or disagree with the above statement?

The population in cities is constantly increasing, and

thus

housing crisis is a most common problem big cities are facing today.

This

is a major concern for governments as it not only increase the cost of living, but

also

affects the quality of life for its residents. I do agree that only governments can solve

this

problem by taking various measures,

such

as restricting landed houses to save the space, encouraging vertical residential buildings and gradually expanding the

city

. In the olden days, people lived in landed independent houses as there were lots of spaces in the

city

.

However

,

this

is not possible in the modern cities as the

city

population is increasing rapidly, and resulting in a space shortage situation for accommodating housing for all. One of the action governments can take is to discourage building new landed houses and encourage people to live in apartment flats.

For instance

, the Singapore government has built thousands of high-floor residential flats through a housing development board to accommodate its ever-growing residents in an affordable way. It

also

stopped permitting for building new landed houses to deal with the space crunch. Some governments are

also

looking at options for expanding the

city

to create more residential properties.

For example

, Bangalore, one of the fast growing cities in India is continuously expanding by incorporating more residential properties and other infrastructure at the outskirts of the

city

, which gradually becomes part of the growing

city

.

However

,

this

option is viable only when there are enough spaces surrounding the

city

. For cities like Hong-Kong and Singapore, which are islands, the only option is to grow vertically within the

city

. Solving the housing shortage is an issue that requires proper planning and big investment and residence of a big

city

have very little to do and the government seems like the appropriate authority to solve

this

problem. In conclusion, the cities are growing rapidly and so the residents of the

city

also

grow.

Thus

, it is the responsibility of governments to take appropriate measures to create a better living place at an affordable price for its

city

residents.