By guarding against excessive mortgage debt at the household level, these measures also serve a vital consumer protection function while also limiting the risk that a house price reversal is amplified at the macroeconomic level through deleveraging pressures on over-extended households.
A second hypothesis involves the behavior of pension funds. As the inevitable increases in retirement populations approach, especially among developed countries, the underfunding of retirement plans has become a growing concern. Pension funds and insurance companies, are being pressed to make significant additions to longer-term bond portfolios.