Six million affordable apartments will be built starting next year, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development said on Tuesday.

Work on 4.6 million such apartments will be completed next year, Minister of Housing and Urban-Rural Development Jiang Weixin, said.

The ministry's plans also include establishing more than 7 million new affordable apartments in 2012, completing more than 5 million by the end of this year, Xinhua News Agency reported.

In the first 10 months of this year, work on 7.22 million affordable houses started, with 5.05 million completed, according to ministry figures.