Feeling unsafe in the building damaged by the biggest tremors to hit the capital in generations, the 23-year-old Thai decided to stay away for two days until experts gave the high-rise the all-clear.
The owners of Phatsakon's condominium assured him that engineers had checked every part of the building and concluded it was habitable.
“I feel a little bit scared. And also my mum told me to move out from here,“ he said.
Bangkok-based real estate consultant Owen Zhu, 40, told AFP that the impact on his sector had been “significant”.
The earthquake prompted a flurry of enquiries from residents looking to relocate in the past week, he says, due to widespread “fear and anxiety“ of living far above ground.
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.
Despite Buyukergun's safety concerns, the owners of the block seemed unfazed.
A large number of studio apartments in Bangkok's sprawling residential projects are rented out on annual leases requiring a two-month deposit.
Zhu says tenants and property owners often disagree over the habitability of quake-damaged apartments, with disputes becoming more common.
“The landlord sees the unit as safe, while the tenant feels it’s unsafe and insists on moving out and getting their deposit back”.
Earthquake safety standards for buildings in Thailand were “not particularly strict” before the disaster and not something property-seeking clients specifically asked about, Zhu said.
City authorities are now investigating whether substandard building materials had been used in its construction.
For house hunters still considering high-rises, they often require that the property sustained “minimal or no damage during the recent earthquake, or at least was not severely affected”.
But for Buyukergun, talk of improving building regulations is not enough to calm his fears about the uncontrollable factors of geology.
“Thailand is safe,“ he recalled thinking before.
“That’s why I couldn’t believe (the) earthquake (happened).”
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