HONG KONG/BEIJING, May 16 (Reuters) - Three major private Chinese property developers who are financially healthy were asked by the authorities to issue bonds this week to help boost market sentiment, two sources with direct knowledge of the matter said on Monday.

The authorities informed Country Garden, Longfor Group and Midea Real Estate about the plan late last week, the sources said. They declined to be named because they were not authorized to speak to media.

They added securities firms will issue credit default swaps (CDS) or credit risk mitigation warrants (CRMW) at the same time to attract investors to buy the bonds, helping private developers to raise funds from the public markets.

The three developers declined to comment when contacted by Reuters.

Financial intelligence provider REDD first reported on the plan on Monday. The report also said Chinese banks have been asked by regulators to buy those bonds.

China's property sector has been hit by a series of debt defaults and requests for payment extensions. Many developers said they have not been getting new credits from banks despite repeated assurances by policymakers and regulators that they would help the sector avoid defaults and would ask banks to extend loans.

Financial regulators including the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) and the Shenzhen Stock exchange issued separate statements early this month highlighting the importance of supporting normal refinancing needs in the sector, including via corporate bond issuance.

President Xi Jinping also called for a stable and healthy real estate market at a late April Politburo meeting.

Chinese authorities stepped up efforts to revive sluggish property demand by further cutting mortgage loan interest rates for first-time home buyers on Sunday.

Analysts said corporate bonds protected by credit risk management tools would encourage market participation in the debt issuances.

"If this can be executed properly, we think that it could extend to some other developers with weaker balance sheets to issue similar debts as well," Raymond Cheng, CGS-CIMB Securities head of China research, said in a note.

Sources told Reuters last month that regulators have asked developers to apply for quotas to issue bonds, although some developers were skeptical that there would be demand for the bonds in the market.

"We still have some quota left, but no banks would buy property bonds right now unless they were ordered to," one Hong Kong-listed developer who had problems meeting debt obligations said. The developer declined to be identified due to the sensitivity of the issue. (Reporting by Clare Jim in Hong Kong and Shuyan Wang in Beijing; Editing by Edmund Klamann and Jacqueline Wong)