With orders from across Australia and overseas, much is riding on the success of ready-to-build housing designs to turbocharge much-needed supply.
But eager home buyers and builders will have to wait another year to see the finished product with construction on the first seven homes using the designs only beginning on Tuesday.
NSW launched its landmark book of eight terrace, townhouse and manor house plans in July, saying new homes could pass the approvals process in as little as 10 days.
Priced at $1, more than 21,000 designs have been sold since.
That includes a few hundred to interested buyers from other states and overseas, despite those buyers not benefiting from a fast-track approval, the state government said on Tuesday.
Prices per design will rise to $1000 on Sunday.
The first sod was turned on seven terraces using the design in the booming southwest Sydney region on Tuesday.
One of the terraces built by state developer Landcom will be retained as a demonstration site, Planning Minister Paul Scully said.
Mr Scully defended the timeframe for construction and hopes work will ramp up in coming weeks once more buyers free up the necessary land to build.
"In a number of those sites, they're a knock down of existing buildings so there's a (development application) process around the demolition that needs to be dealt with," Mr Scully said.
The opposition argues the six-month delay in pattern book construction shows the plan will not be a silver bullet for the housing supply crisis.
"This is yet another example of the Minns Labor government talking big and delivering nothing," housing spokesman Chris Rath said on Friday.
"Six months on, it has produced zero homes at a time when NSW families and young people are desperate for somewhere to live."
NSW is on track to fall more than 150,000 homes short of its target under the National Housing Accord, aiming to build 1.2 million well-located homes by mid-2029.
