Housing & Community — Part 1
The Celpip Plus team
Written and reviewed against the official CELPIP scoring criteria
What you'll learn: the verb + noun collocations for renting, buying, and settling into a home, so descriptions of housing situations sound precise rather than generic.
Why this topic shows up so often
Housing is one of CELPIP's most reliable topics — Speaking Task 3 (describing a scene) often includes a home or apartment, Writing Task 1 frequently asks for a letter to a landlord or roommate, and Listening passages regularly cover moving, renting, and neighborhood issues. The verbs below are the ones that consistently attach to housing nouns in natural English, and mixing them up ("do a lease" instead of "sign a lease") is one of the fastest ways to sound non-native.
Renting versus owning
Notice that several collocations split cleanly between renting a place (sign a lease, pay a deposit) and owning one (take out a mortgage, pay off a mortgage). Keeping these two tracks separate in your head will help you use the right one under exam pressure.
Core collocations
| Collocation | Meaning | Example sentence |
|---|---|---|
| sign a lease | formally agree to rent a property | We signed a lease for a two-bedroom apartment downtown. |
| pay a deposit | give money upfront to secure a rental | The landlord asked us to pay a deposit of one month's rent. |
| take out a mortgage | borrow money to buy a home | They took out a mortgage to buy their first house. |
| pay off a mortgage | finish repaying a home loan | It took my parents twenty-five years to pay off their mortgage. |
| rent a property | pay to use a home you don't own | We decided to rent a property instead of buying right away. |
| renovate a kitchen | make major improvements to a kitchen | We renovated the kitchen before putting the house up for sale. |
| host a neighbor | invite a neighbor into your home | We hosted our neighbors for a barbecue last weekend. |
| join a community | become part of a local group or area | We quickly joined the community after moving in. |
| report a nuisance | formally complain about a disturbance | She reported a noise nuisance to the building manager. |
| maintain a property | keep a building in good condition | The owner is responsible for maintaining the property. |
| evict a tenant | legally force a tenant to leave | The landlord threatened to evict the tenant for unpaid rent. |
| furnish an apartment | fill a home with furniture | It took a month to furnish the apartment properly. |
Worked example — CELPIP Speaking Task 1
Prompt: Describe your experience moving to a new home.
"When I moved to this city, I rented a property close to downtown because I wasn't ready to take out a mortgage yet. Before moving in, I had to sign a lease and pay a deposit equal to two months' rent. The apartment was empty, so it took a few weekends to furnish the apartment. Once I settled in, I made an effort to join the community by attending a local event. I even hosted my neighbors for dinner to introduce myself. The building itself was well maintained, though I once had to report a nuisance when a unit upstairs played loud music every night. Overall, it was a smooth transition."
Common mistakes
- Saying "do a lease" instead of the correct sign a lease.
- Using "give a deposit" rather than the standard pay a deposit.
- Confusing take out a mortgage with "make a mortgage," which is not a natural English pairing.
- Writing "fix a nuisance" instead of the fixed collocation report a nuisance.
- Saying "kick out a tenant" in formal writing instead of the more appropriate evict a tenant.
Recap
These twelve verb + noun collocations — sign a lease, pay a deposit, take out a mortgage, pay off a mortgage, rent a property, renovate a kitchen, host a neighbor, join a community, report a nuisance, maintain a property, evict a tenant, and furnish an apartment — form the foundation for describing housing situations on CELPIP. Part 2 builds on this with adjective-based ways to describe homes and neighborhoods.