The prefabricated units arrived yesterday and a 160-tonne crane was deployed to place them carefully by All Saints Anglican Church in Cumberland St, vicar the Rev Canon Michael Wallace said.
They will house University of Otago students while residential hall Selwyn College is redeveloped.
Mr Wallace led a ceremony in November last year, ahead of demolition of parish flats at the Cumberland St site.
The college had rented one of the flats for more than a decade when the college asked if more students could be housed there while some redevelopment was carried out at the hall.
The parish agreed and the units arrived yesterday.
Selwyn College has had a long association with the church.
Mr Wallace has said previously the longer-term plan was to build units for social housing at the site once the temporary units were no longer needed by the college.
The site was once the home of gold-dredger and Chinese leader Choie Sew Hoy and his family in the 19th century.
