(Bloomberg) -- China will refine real estate policies to provide stronger support for the ailing sector, as the property crisis drags into a fourth year. 

The government will treat real estate companies equally regardless of their ownership, according to proposals outlined in a work report to the National People’s Congress on Tuesday. 

It also pledged to “move faster to foster a new development model for real estate,” including by building government-subsidized housing. It will scale up such supply in line with President Xi Jinping’s mantra of “common prosperity” to narrow the wealth gap. 

Developer shares fell as the measures did little to convince investors that they will end the property slump, which is denting growth in the world’s second-largest economy. The crisis has spread to the nation’s biggest builders, with China Vanke Co. the latest to face growing investor concern over its debts. 

Read more: China’s Property Debt Woes Deepen as Vanke Under Closer Scrutiny

The work report omitted the slogan “housing is for living in, not speculation” for the first time since 2019, as top leaders try to stabilize an industry that once drove about a quarter of economic output. The phrase has consistently been used by officials since 2016, and became an important way for Beijing to signal its intention to cool an overheating market.

The government also pledged to boost financing for private businesses. It is planning to increase loans and expand the scale of bond issuance for such companies. 

A Bloomberg Intelligence gauge of Chinese developer shares fell as much as 2.9% on Tuesday. It has dropped 57% in the past year. 

Beijing plans to improve oversight systems for the “unified management” of local government debt, the report said. The property crisis has put a strain on local authorities, which rely on land sales for much of their revenue.  

“We will defuse risks in real estate, local government debt, and small and medium financial institutions by addressing both symptoms and root causes,” the report said. 

The government also vowed to tighten the management of presale funds from housing projects under construction, “holding real estate enterprises primarily responsible,” the National Development and Reform Commission said in a separate report. New homes in China are usually sold before they are completed, and some cash-strapped developers have struggled to deliver them even though the proceeds are kept in escrow accounts. 

The real estate slump continues to afflict developers. Country Garden Holdings Co. is facing a liquidation petition in Hong Kong, just a month after another industry giant China Evergrande Group was wound up in January. China Vanke, the country’s second-biggest real estate firm, saw its shares and bonds hit record lows this week after renewed concerns that it may need more breathing room to repay creditors. 

Read more: Country Garden’s Sales Drop Most in Years Amid Wind-Up Fears

China also unveiled plans to issue 1 trillion yuan ($139 billion) of ultra-long special central government bonds this year. It’s only the fourth such sale in the past 26 years, with the most recent one in 2020 when authorities issued 1 trillion yuan worth of those bonds to pay for pandemic response measures.

The move — which Bloomberg News reported in January was under consideration — signals a focus by Xi’s government this year on tapping fiscal support to help the economy, which is also facing pressures from deflation and dampened consumer confidence.

--With assistance from Amanda Wang.

(Updates with report on presales tightening in ninth paragraph)

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