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This article reflects the state of our research and is not legal or tax advice. What applies to your property depends on the zone, the municipality, the house rules and your contract; only the competent authority gives binding information.
Key facts
- Zurich's new rule was expected to take effect in autumn 2026, provided no appeal follows.
- In early July 2026, when this research was done, it was not yet in force.
- Three questions can be answered now: zone and residential share, permanently commercial or occasionally private, and what use the building permit records.
- If residential space is in fact run as an accommodation business, that is a change of use — whether or not anyone notices.
What is due to take effect in the autumn
Following the Federal Supreme Court ruling of 30 April 2026, the city of Zurich has named autumn 2026 as the expected date of entry into force, provided no appeal follows. At the time of this research — early July 2026 — the rule is therefore not yet in force.
That is not reassurance but a deadline. The city names two duties concretely: a notification duty for permanently commercial uses, and a building application for changes of use (Nutzungsänderung) — even where no building work is involved.
A building application is not a form you fill in over one evening. Anyone discovering in the autumn that they need one has lost the winter season and possibly bookings they cannot honour.
Three questions that can be answered now
All three can be settled before entry into force, and none of the three changes as a result of it.
- Which zone is the flat in, and does a residential-share requirement (Wohnanteilpflicht) apply there? That is set out in the building and zoning code and can be asked of the city planning office (Amt für Städtebau). Without a residential-share requirement the question is largely defused.
- Is the use permanently commercial or occasionally private? The city distinguishes expressly. Anyone letting their own home while on holiday is not affected; anyone letting a flat all year round to changing guests, in which nobody lives, is.
- What use is recorded in the building permit decision? If the flat is approved as residential space and is in fact run as an accommodation business, a change of use exists — regardless of whether anyone notices.
Your figures, not our examples
The calculator takes the number of rooms, the neighbourhood and the fit-out and shows you a range — with the arithmetic beside it, not as a single figure you have to take on trust.
Estimate the returnWhat is worth doing now
Obtain the building administration’s information and keep it in writing. A verbal assurance helps nobody in two years’ time; an email with a date and a name does.
With condominium ownership, read the association’s rules before the municipality asks. Many sets of rules contain provisions on commercial use that are older than Airbnb and apply nonetheless. Anyone reading them only once a dispute arises is negotiating from the weaker position.
Give your own calculation a second figure: what does the property yield as a long-term tenancy? If that figure will not carry the purchase price or the mortgage, the whole calculation hangs on a rule you do not control.
What remains open
Whether existing uses will be given a transitional period was not publicly settled at the time of this research. That is the most important open question for everyone letting today — and the reason why information for the specific address is worth more than any general article.
Also open: exactly where the line between occasional and permanent use falls. The city names both ends, not the middle. Anyone in the middle should reckon with an interpretation stricter than their own.
Frequently asked questions
No, not generally. The city of Zurich may no longer count flats used permanently and commercially for short-term letting towards the prescribed minimum residential share. In zones with a residential-share requirement that means, in effect, that such use is no longer admissible there. Occasional private letting during your own absence is expressly not affected. What matters, therefore, is the zone your flat is in and the type of use, not the platform. At the time of our research, entry into force was envisaged for autumn 2026.
For a change of use, yes — and that applies even where no building work is involved. This is the point most frequently overlooked: a building application without building work sounds contradictory, but it is the normal case when approved residential space in fact becomes an accommodation business. Once the new rule takes legal effect, builders must declare the type of residential use in the building application. A building application takes months, not days — which is why the question belongs before the season, not inside it.
That is the most important open question. Whether existing uses will be given a transitional period was not publicly settled at the time of our research in early July 2026. According to the city, around 5,320 temporarily let units are affected. Anyone letting today should not count on grandfathering, but obtain the information for their own address and keep it in writing. And check whether the calculation also holds up with a long-term tenancy.
And for your property?
Sources
State of our research: 2 July 2026. Official rules change — check the current position with the competent authority.
