China's authorities have ordered state-owned enterprises (SOEs) under the central government to be "actively involved" in building affordable houses as part of the country's effort to provide low-income residents with affordable homes.

As part of its 12th five-year plan (2010-2015), the Chinese government pledged earlier this year to build 10 million units of affordable housing this year and 36 million units of affordable housing in total by 2015.

"Central SOEs should take part in affordable housing building through various channels," said the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC) in a statement on its website Tuesday.

The country's 121 central SOEs should boost investment in affordable housing building and see the task as a key part of fulfilling their corporate social responsibility, the SASAC said.

Central SOEs which specialize in surveying, designing or engineering construction should be actively involved in building affordable housing, said the statement.

Centrally administrated property developers are urged to link affordable housing building with commercial real estate developing, while taking advantage of preferential policies offered by local governments in land supply, subsidies on interest payment of loans, financing and taxation and fees.

The ministerial-level SASAC also stressed the "quality first" principle in building affordable housing, noting that central SOEs should work to supply high-quality and affordable building materials and spread the usage of new-type energy-saving building materials.