A computer-controlled security system. Potable drinking water. A biochemical garbage treatment plant. Property management services.

Those are just some of the major hallmarks of six model apartment building complexes that will open their doors late next year and could be home to as many as 10,800 families.

The "high-tech" apartment complexes, each averaging 180,000 square meters, will be setting the benchmark for future residential developments in Shanghai, city housing officials said.

Even the state Ministry of Construction has given its blessing to the model projects - Aijian Garden and Lijiangshanshui Garden, both in Xuhui District, Olympic Garden in Songjiang District, Cultural Garden in Yangpu District, Oriental City Garden in Pudong District and Xianghe Villa in Putuo District.

The apartment complexes are among the more than 30 real estate projects pushed by the ministry that are using advanced technologies which have been developed on China's mainland since 1999.

"While some of these technologies - such as a potable drinking water system and a garbage separation and collection system - were already carried out in a few local construction projects, none of those residential projects are as comprehensive as the six pilot projects," said Xu Hanzhong, a senior engineer with the city Housing Development Bureau's housing industry department who is supervising the model projects.

"What was built previously just can't compete with the model apartment complexes," Xu added.

City and state housing officials have insisted that environment-friendly wall materials instead of clay bricks be used to construct the model projects.

Also essential are double windows so that heat is more easily retained, parking spaces for at least 40 percent of the families in an apartment complex, and green space that accounts for at least 30 percent of the total residential area. Kitchens and bathrooms must also be completely decorated.

Su Gang, director of the Cultural Garden project, said more than half of the 1,100 apartments at the complex have already been sold despite prices being the highest in Yangpu. Su declined to disclose the prices, but at the other model projects, it is as much as 6,000 yuan (US$723) per square meter.