BEIJING - A report released Thursday showed that China's local governments sold 333,900 hectares of land to be used for construction in 2011, with the total value of the sales contracts reaching 3.15 trillion yuan ($501 billion).

The average price of land in 105 major cities stood at 3,049 yuan per square meter last year, up 6 percent year-on-year, the Ministry of Land and Resources (MLR) said Thursday in an annual land resources report.

The amount of land allocated for the construction of affordable housing in 2011 reached 48,100 hectares, exceeding the original target of 41,800 hectares, according to the report.