Owners of apartments in the structurally damaged Mascot Towers have voted to foot the bill for a $1m special levy to fund repairs after a lengthy closed-door meeting on Thursday night.

But residents won’t be able to return to their apartments for at least a month.

Mascot Towers, in Sydney’s south, was evacuated on 14 June after engineers became concerned about continued cracking in the primary support structure and facade masonry of the 10-year-old building on Bourke Street.

The situation, which followed similar cracking at Sydney’s Opal Tower six months ago – has again raised concerns about the quality of New South Wales apartment buildings.

More than 100 frustrated owners met for four hours at the Holiday Inn at Mascot on Thursday night.

In the end there was little choice but to vote to fund the levy for repairs, with owners facing the reality of empty apartments until necessary improvement are made.

“There’s not much choice,” one owner, Brian Tucker, told reporters. “It was a pretty overwhelming vote. We just want to see everyone back in the building.”

An engineers’ summary released on Thursday said while there were some signs the complex was “stabilising”, there was no immediate prospect that residents would be able to reoccupy Mascot Towers within the next month.

A media spokesman, Patrick McGuire, said after the meeting that owners were obviously disappointed.

“They’re concerned about what the future is but its early days yet and there’s a very good team of people that they’re taking advice from,” he said.