Wellingtonians are being warned more buildings may be condemned following this week's earthquake.

A number of buildings have been evacuated due to major structural damage following the 7.8 magnitude quake and aftershocks.

LISTEN ABOVE: Wellington Mayor Justin Lester speaks with Rachel Smalley

The latest is the Reading Cinema Carpark on Tory St, it and the surrounding buildings have been deserted. A decision on whether to knock down the carpark will be made today.

Wellington mayor Justin Lester said the building looks precarious.

"See if it has significant structural damage at which point you have to assess whether the building has a reasonable future, or ultimately whether it needs to be deconstructed."

Mr Lester said more buildings could yet face demolition.

SEE ALSO: Number of quake-damaged buildings in Wellington set to grow

The Government has ordered an inquiry after relatively new buildings, such as the Statistics New Zealand building, failed and have had to be declared off limits.

Labour leader Andrew Little said there are questions that need to be answered as to why newer buildings have failed in Wellington.

"Let's see what this investigation throws up but I think there are such obvious questions about whether these buildings are properly compliant and if not, what the engineering failures have been and how they can be avoided in the future."

CentrePort has two main questions about the Statistics New Zealand building on Wellington's waterfront.

Chair Lachie Johnstone said they've got engineers working through what has gone wrong; it's a process that will take some time.

"And the questions we need to ask are, has the building failed or has what nature's thrown at the building been too much for it."

Society for Earthquake Engineering president Peter Smith said hundreds of inspections have now been carried out, with engineers reporting building height seems to be the main factor.

He said there may need to be changes to the building code.

"We can understand people being confused that their houses have hardly got a crack in them and low strength buildings are standing and yet these taller buildings, which are probably more engineered and more recent, have got a problem."

Mr Smith said Wellington may need to have fewer high rise buildings.

He said it's rare that we get a significant quake, so we need to seriously study the results each time.

"There are issues with apartments and high rise. There needs to be greater consideration of those sorts of issues. It may be that we need to look at the extent in which we allow buildings to deform under a code earthquake."

Despite the evacuation of their buildings, government departments in Wellington are determined to get back to work.

Government Property Group director David White said the Government has over 100 buildings in Wellington, but only two have suffered major damage.

"We have temporary accommodation for our Stats New Zealand staff and NZDF staff... It's business as usual from our point of view."