Construction started on 5 mln affordable homes

China's affordable housing program is going smoothly as construction has begun on 5 million affordable housing units this year, latest data has showed.

The number accounted for roughly 79 percent of the 6.3 million units planned for the whole year, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development said on Friday.

As of the end of July, construction had been nearly completed on 2.8 million units, and a total of 620 billion yuan (100.5 billion U.S. dollars) had been injected into the affordable housing program, the ministry said.

The program, which was approved in 1999, is designed to provide cheaper housing to low-income families who have been edged out by runaway real estate prices.

The government has vowed to build 36 million affordable housing units during the 2011-2015 period.