BEIJING, December 16 (Xinhua) -- China started construction on 6.66 million affordable housing units and completed building 5.44 million in the first 11 months, meeting its annual targets ahead of schedule, according to the country's housing authorities on Monday.

Investment in affordable housing during the period was 1.12 trillion yuan (183.23 billion U.S. dollars), the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development said in a statement.

The country planned to start building 6.3 million units and complete 4.7 million of them in 2013, to make housing accessible to low-income earners as property prices have sky-rocketed.

According to China's 12th five-year plan, it will increase the quantity of affordable housing so that it covers 20 percent of all residential areas by 2015.

A total of 36 million affordable housing units will be built from 2011 to 2015. The plan includes the renovation of run-down neighborhoods.