THE central bank is considering lowering commercial banks’ annual loan targets for Shanghai mortgage lending to fit with now-tumbling demand after the city imposed measures to cool its over-heated housing market, three sources said.

    The People’s Bank of China’s Shanghai branch has sent banks a notice querying the amount of mortgage loans granted after the municipal government rolled out cooling measures one month ago, the sources said Thursday.

    Early this year, Shanghai home prices surged. In March, they were 25 percent higher than a year earlier, according to the National Statistics Bureau.

    On March 25, the municipal government announced tighter down payment requirements for second home purchases and made it harder for non-residents to buy homes. Home sales tumbled sharply in the week after authorities made it harder to buy homes. Given the fall, commercial banks are worried they will not be able to reach their 2016 mortgage loan targets, the sources said.(SD-Agencies)