BEIJING, Jan. 9 -- China completed 7.72 million units of affordable housing in urban areas in 2015, beating the annual target of 4.8 million, official data have shown.

The construction of 7.83 million units began in 2015, compared with the full-year goal of 7.4 million, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development said earlier this week.

Last year, China started to renovate 6.01 million dilapidated urban homes, accounting for 104 percent of the target. It aims to rebuild 18 million such homes between 2015 and 2017.

The country invested 1.54 trillion yuan (236.9 billion U.S. dollars) last year in the affordable housing program, which provides cheaper homes to low-income families that have been priced out of the property market.