(Bloomberg) -- China’s local governments raised the least revenue from land sales in eight years, another sign of the nation’s deepening housing crisis that has forced Beijing to pump in more cash.

Incomes from transfers of rights to use state-owned land — where local authorities sell land to property developers — fell 21% in April from a year earlier to 238.9 billion yuan ($33 billion), according to Bloomberg calculations based on data released by the Ministry of Finance on Monday. That’s the lowest figure since May 2016.

“This adds to weak housing sales and investment data in April that showed more evidence of a deepening housing slump — raising urgency for the government to inject more aid. And they did respond,” said Eric Zhu, an economist with Bloomberg Economics.

The real estate bust has depressed household spending in the world’s second-largest economy, and exacerbated budget strains for local authorities who depend on land revenue for a large chunk of their income. Beijing last week unveiled its most forceful attempt to rescue the property market, relaxing mortgage rules and providing tens of billions of dollars for local governments to buy unsold homes.

Questions remain on how officials will put that plan into practice. Other steps suggested at a Friday meeting chaired by Vice Premier He Lifeng include buying back unused land from developers.

Read more: China’s Housing Rescue Too Small to End Crisis, Analysts Say

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. economists expect land sales revenue to face prolonged downward pressure in the coming quarters or even years.

“Property developer funding conditions remain stretched despite continued policy support, and the policy priority remains on ensuring completions,” which implies less funding for land purchases and new starts, Goldman analysts led by Lisheng Wang wrote in a Tuesday note.

--With assistance from Ailing Tan.

(Updates with Goldman comments.)

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