CHINA plans to put 150,800 hectares of land on the market for housing projects this year, the Ministry of Land and Resources said yesterday.

Among them, 109,200 hectares, or 72.4 percent of total supplies, are planned for commodity housing projects, while 41,500 hectares would be for the government's affordable housing program, the ministry said.

Housing land supplies in 70 major cities would amount to 50,300 hectares, 1.2 times the average of their actual annual land supplies seen during the past five years, according to the ministry.

Chinese cities have constantly failed to fulfill residential land supply plans over the past three years as a result of the government's continued property controls, which started in 2010.

In 2012, the country's actual housing land supplies totaled 110,800 hectares, falling short of the ministry's target of 159,300 hectares for the year, according to data from the ministry.

The housing market started to cool in 2010 when tighter policies such as higher down payments and curbs on third-home buying were launched.

However, the market began to heat up last year after China put more emphasis on economic growth.

To stabilize the market, the State Council, China's Cabinet, has pledged to ensure land for housing this year.