Functional recovery is a new design strategy in earthquake engineering that prioritises rapid recovery and building re-use after severe natural disasters. It suggests holistic building performance goals focused on structural robustness, enhanced safety, and a rapid return to operations post-event. To paint a realistic picture of post-earthquake building recovery trajectories, there remains a significant gap in knowledge for calibrating existing building seismic performance assessment frameworks using empirical data from earthquakes. The 2024 Hualien Earthquake in Taiwan provides a unique opportunity to calibrate this approach and improve our understanding of building seismic performance and how the functional recovery of buildings affects community resilience. A reconnaissance trip was undertaken in Hualien, and damage data from 16 buildings were collected to generate functional recovery lessons and benchmark the FEMA-P58 framework using SP3 software. The research suggests that the closure or limited use of some residential buildings was largely due to extensive damage to non-structural elements, including egress and elevators, ceilings, partitions, facades, and glazing. Business disruptions were mainly caused by restricted access or cordons put in place for the safe demolition of adjacent buildings. The adaptive resilience and preparedness of building owners, residents, and businesses appeared to play a significant role in the re-use of buildings. The functional recovery data and lessons learned from Hualien, particularly the positive outcomes of its building retrofit programmes, would support the ongoing development of low-damage design guidelines and seismic design practice in New Zealand that can enhance the seismic performance and recovery of buildings.