Record low mortgage rates and the prospect of a consumption tax hike that will add the price of a new Toyota Corolla to the cost of an average home spurred Sumiko Morigaki into action.

"Tax hikes have been looming, so that gave me a push to buy," said Morigaki, 43, a manager at an apparel retailer in Tokyo, who bought a three-bedroom condominium in Kanagawa Prefecture earlier this year.

New housing loans jumped 14.7 percent in the second quarter from a year ago, the most since March 2006, buoying a housing market entering its third decade of deflation.