Interstate interest for cookie-cutter home designs
With orders coming in from across Australia and overseas, much depends on the success of ready-to-build housing designs to accelerate much-needed supply.
But eager home buyers and builders will have to wait another year to see the finished product, with the first seven homes using the designs being built starting Tuesday.
NSW published its landmark book of eight terrace, townhouse and mansion plans in July, saying new homes could go through the approval process in as little as 10 days.
More than 21,000 designs of this product, whose price starts at $1, have been sold to date.
Although these buyers do not benefit from an expedited approval, they include several hundred interested buyers from other states and abroad, the state government said on Tuesday.
Prices per design will rise to $1,000 on Sunday.
The first sod opened on seven terraces using the design in the booming southwestern Sydney region on Tuesday.
Planning Minister Paul Scully said one of the terraces, built by state developer Landcom, would be kept as a demonstration area.
Mr Scully defended the timeframe for construction and hopes work will pick up in the coming weeks as buyers release the land needed for construction.
“In some of these areas, there is demolition of existing buildings, so there is a (development application) process to go through around demolition,” Mr Scully said.
The opposition argues that the six-month delay in producing the model books shows the plan will not be a magic solution to the housing supply crisis.
“This is yet another example of the Minns Labor government talking big and doing nothing,” housing spokesman Chris Rath said Friday.
“Six months later, zero homes have been produced at a time when NSW families and young people are looking for somewhere to live.”
NSW is on track to fall more than 150,000 homes short of its target under the National Housing Deal, which aims to build 1.2 million well-located homes by mid-2029.
