The figures, released this week, showed that of the 1433 properties owned by the national housing agency in the city, 86 were classed as "vacant".
Of those 86 properties, 48 of them had been vacant for more than 120 days.
The figures were accurate to October 31 last year.
Similar figures have been recorded across the country, which has prompted Housing Minister Chris Bishop to send a letter to Kainga Ora’s chairman Vui Mark Gosche.
Kainga Ora South Island acting deputy chief executive Melissa Paton said the vacancies across the Otago, Southland and South Canterbury region reflected the fact they had some of the oldest public homes and complexes in New Zealand.
"It’s important to note that the attached data includes all of the homes across our region that are either in the redevelopment, retrofit, demolition process — as they are classified as ‘vacant’."
The government housing agency is redeveloping four sites in Albertson Ave which will turn 11 existing houses into 20 new homes, while demolition of the 16 state houses in Carroll St has been completed in order to make way for a 40-property development on the site.
"Through our retrofit programme, we are also renewing many older public homes to make them warmer, drier and healthier for customers to live in," Ms Paton said.
"Because of the extensive nature of this work our customers have to move into other homes on a temporary basis. These homes and the homes our customers stay in while the work is completed are also included in the figures".
A month ago, the government set up an independent review examining the agency’s financial situation, procurement and management. It is due to report back by April.
