Contents
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 points
- Since 1 September 2026 Zurich applies the BZO rule (non-countability toward the minimum residential share).
- Notification and possible building permit for change of use apply to permanent commercial short-term use; occasional private letting while away is excluded per the city.
- Three questions remain central: zone/residential share, permanently commercial vs occasionally private, use per building decision.
- Research date for this page: 22 September 2026 (BZO in force since 1.9.2026).
What has applied since 1 September 2026
This text is for owners and for tenants with landlord consent in the city of Zurich. Without the landlord’s consent (Art. 262 CO) no tenant mandate starts. Not legal advice.
After the Federal Supreme Court ruling of 30 April 2026, the city of Zurich has been applying the BZO partial revision since 1 September 2026. The city names two duties: notification for permanently commercial uses, and a building application for changes of use — even without building work. A building application is not a form for one evening. Anyone clarifying the question only after use has started risks bookings they cannot honour. Not legal advice; binding: authority or specialist. Overview: Airbnb permit Zurich 2026.
Three questions that can be answered now
All three remain central and can be clarified for your address; they do not change because of entry into force.
- 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. The rule has been in force since 1 September 2026. Details and sources: /insights/airbnb-bewilligung-zuerich-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.
Whether existing uses receive a transitional period was not conclusively settled in public city sources as of our permit research (5.9.2026). Anyone letting: obtain information for your own address and keep it in writing. Do not assume grandfathering.
And for your property?
Sources
State of our research: 22 September 2026. Official rules change — check the current position with the competent authority.
