Urgent quake repairs needed - Wellington mayor

Wellington Mayor Justin Lester says invasive testing of 80 buildings has found no public safety threat, despite some properties requiring urgent repairs.

The testing was ordered after November's Kaikōura earthquake damaged several buildings in Wellington, including modern properties such as Statistics House at Centre Port.

Under powers granted through the Civil Defence Emergency Management Act 2002, Wellington City Council sent letters to 80 building owners requiring in-depth engineering reports.

All 80 buildings had similar characteristics - four to 15 floors high, with reinforced concrete structures and built on soft soil with flexible designs.

At a media conference on Tuesday, Mr Lester said 62 reports had been received so far, and there was no public safety concern. 

"Based on all the reports we have seen, while damage has been identified, we have not received any information that gives us concern about public safety."

Eighteen building owners requested seven to 14 day extensions for the detailed reports.

Council chief resilience officer Mike Mendonca said these requests were granted due to many citing the need for more engineering work to be completed.

"Around a third" of the 62 buildings have sustained "some kind of damage", Mr Mendonca said. However he refused to speak about any of the damaged buildings by name.

Mr Lester said some damage found was minor, while some was more serious which will require repairs.

The council says under the Civil Defence Emergency Management Act, building owners are the only party authorised to release engineering reports to the public.

Mr Mendonca says building owners are cooperating and those buildings requiring urgent repairs are being fixed.

"We would expect that building owners would share this information with tenants," Mr Mendonca said.

"We think it's not an unreasonable request to do so - and by and large building owners are doing exactly that."

Asked if he was comfortable with owners not being required to release reports to tenants or the public, Mr Lester said he wasn't aware of any owners withholding reports.

"The process has worked really well," he said.

Newshub.