China will increase residential land supplies by more than 20 percent this year in order to further restrain property prices, according to a plan released by the Ministry of Land and Resources on May 15.

The ministry said in a statement that the government would provide a total of 172,600 hectares of residential land this year, up 21.3 percent from 2011.

The amount of land to be doled out doubles the annual average of 87,300 hectares supplied over the last five years.

The ministry said that 79.3 percent of the land supplies would be used for affordable housing development, as well as for small and medium-sized commercial housing, up 0.7 percentage points from last year.

The Chinese Government plans to begin construction on more than 7 million affordable housing units this year.