Fear and anxiety Bangkok residents seek quake proof homes

BANGKOK – Shaken hours earlier by a massive earthquake, Mr Phatsakon Kaewkla’s terror was magnified when he came home to find gaping cracks in the walls of his 22nd-floor Bangkok apartment.

Feeling unsafe in the building damaged by the biggest tremors to hit the capital in generations, the 23-year-old decided to stay away for two days until experts gave the high-rise the all-clear.

The sales coordinator is now one of many Bangkok residents wondering if they should seek safer housing in a city where hundreds of residential buildings were damaged by the 7.7-magnitude quake that struck neighbouring Myanmar on March 28.

The owners of Mr Phatsakon’s condominium assured him that engineers had checked every part of the building and concluded it was habitable.

But he is still spooked about the cracks.

“I feel a little bit scared. And also my mum told me to move out from here,” he said.

More than 1,000km away from the quake’s epicentre, the Thai capital – its skyline dotted with hundreds of towers and glinting high-rises – virtually never experiences such tremors.

Bangkok-based real estate consultant Owen Zhu, 40, said the impact on his sector has been “significant”.

“People seem to have realised that living in high-rise buildings might carry greater risks when it comes to earthquake resistance compared with two-storey or low-rise structures,” the Chinese property expert said.

The earthquake has prompted a flurry of inquiries from residents looking to relocate in the past week, he says, due to widespread “fear and anxiety” of living far above ground.

‘Gap in perception’

Mr Yigit Buyukergun from Turkey was at home in Bangkok with his wife when the quake struck. After it subsided, they emerged from under a table to inspect the damage on their 22nd-floor flat.

“Everywhere is cracked, especially in the corridor.