If you’re considering buying a condo in a larger San Francisco building, there’s an important ordinance you need to know about. The city will require automatic fire sprinklers to be installed inside every room of residential units in certain high-rise buildings by 2035. As you can imagine, this could involve significant future costs, construction impacts and logistical hurdles.
Roughly 126 buildings—home to about 9,800 units—have been identified as needing upgrades to comply with the new law, as the San Francisco Chronicle reported recently. These properties were built before 1975, are 12 or more stories and lack two interior stairways that are separated from the rest of the building by two-hour fire-rated walls.
Homeowners in these buildings must obtain permits for the sprinkler work by January 2027, but installation doesn’t need to be completed until 2035.
Where did this ordinance come from? The Board of Supervisors passed it during a time when San Francisco was experiencing a spike in residential fires. While many of those fires were not in the buildings affected by this ordinance, the city is taking a proactive, long-term safety approach.
The San Francisco Fire Commission is currently updating the city’s fire code—something that happens every three years—and the Board of Supervisors still needs to officially approve this latest version, which includes the new sprinkler mandate.
It’s important to understand the scope of the work. Installing sprinklers in individual condo units typically includes extensive demolition inside units to open walls and ceilings, as well as installation of pumps, pipes, and other equipment to supply water to the system. Residents will need to temporarily relocate during the work in their unit, and there may be potential asbestos abatement, especially in buildings with original popcorn ceilings. Homeowners associations (HOAs) will need to coordinate all the work.
The Board of Supervisors apparently didn’t do any formal cost studies prior to passing the ordinance. But the Chronicle estimates costs at around $300,000 per unit, not including relocation expenses. I’m also noting that no one is discussing all the older apartment rental buildings that lack sprinkler systems. I’m guessing that our supervisors moved ahead with the (incorrect) assumption that condo owners can all afford hundreds of thousands of dollars to install sprinklers.
HOAs will eventually need to decide how to fund the work—typically through special assessments, increases in monthly HOA dues or loans taken out by the association, repaid over time. This could mean significant unexpected expenses down the road for prospective buyers. And there’s been nothing mentioned about all the older, high-rise apartment rental buildings out there that don’t have sprinklers. The Board of Supervisors seems to be focusing on condo buildings, which it presumably (and incorrectly) believes have residents who can uniformly afford to comply with the ordinance.
So how do you approach a purchase in a building that may need to install sprinklers? Here are a few pro tips:
Review disclosures: Confirm whether the building in which you’re interested has been identified as one that will need sprinklers. If so, find out whether the HOA has begun planning, budgeting or consulting contractors, as well as what any anticipated assessments might be.
Factor installation costs and relocation into your financial planning.
Think long term: A building undergoing such a major upgrade may ultimately become safer and more attractive, but owners will shoulder the cost first.
Buying in one of these buildings isn’t necessarily a dealbreaker, but it does require a firm grasp on all the details. The sprinkler mandate is a major financial and logistical undertaking for future and current owners, who will have to shoulder the cost and inconveniences.
[All facts and information for this post are from the SF Chronicle’s story “Sprinkler Shock: Owners of SF High-Rise Condos Stunned by $300k Mandate” by J.K. Dineen and published on November 17.2025.]