In order to help its people cope up with the skyrocketing home prices in China's major cities, the central government announced plans to spend up to 115.8 billion yuan, or around US$18.8 billion, on affordable housing this year.

The housing budget for this year is 14.3 percent from the fund allocated for the same program last year, recent data showed. The affordable housing program of China was launched in 1999 as the government aims to uplift the living conditions of minimum earners and poverty-stricken residents living in shanty shelters.

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According to a report by a local newspaper in Bejing, the housing fund will cover subsidies for low-rent housing, renovation of shanty towns and public rental departments.

The central government has been implementing subsidized housing programs in recent years as several families have been pushed out of their houses due to high home prices and rentals in major cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangdong.

Early this year, the government said it will improve the country's affordable housing system and pledge to construct at least seven million housing units this year, with more than 4.7 million units allocated for people living in shanties.

The plan is to provide low-income families the opportunity to own houses at very affordable rates as the real estate prices in China continue to overheat.

Around 25 million affordable housing units have already been built from 2011 to 2013 out of China's target of building 36 million affordable units, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development said.

The ministry also said that prices of homes in big cities continue to rise last month, despite the government's effort to cool down the market.

All but one 70 major cities recently monitored by the ministry reported increase of 10 percent or higher in new home prices.