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
- Two cases rule the use out: zones with a minimum residential share in the city of Zurich, and a ban in the condominium regulations.
- Five more rarely add up — a large flat with few sleeping places, a fourth floor without a lift, sensitive neighbours, a high long-term rent by the lake, tight capital.
- What decides is not the floor area but how many people can sleep independently of one another.
- The most common reason a working relationship ends is not the numbers — it is the neighbours.
Why this article
Our commission depends on revenue. A property that does not perform costs us more effort than it brings in — so we have no interest in setting it up. That is why this list appears here and not on a page you receive after signing.
The cases are ordered by weight: the first two rule the use out, the rest make it uneconomic. For the latter there are exceptions, for the first there are none.
Two cases that rule the use out
First: the zone does not permit it. In zones with a residential-share requirement (Wohnanteilpflicht) in the city of Zurich, permanently commercial short-term letting is no longer admissible following the Federal Supreme Court ruling of 30 April 2026. That is not a question of calculation — a flat that may not be let short-term produces no income. The building authority (Bauamt) gives the information, free of charge, and it belongs before any further consideration.
Second: the condominium association’s rules prohibit it, or a change is on the table. In judgment 5A_436/2018 the Federal Supreme Court upheld such a prohibition. And even where the rules are silent today: if the minutes of recent meetings contain complaints about guests, a change is more likely than in a building where nobody notices the use. The minutes say more than the rules do.
Five cases in which it does not pay
Here the use is permitted, but the figures do not carry it.
- A large flat with few guests. A four-room flat with one bedroom and three connecting rooms costs CHF 160 to 250 per clean but achieves the price of a two-room flat. What matters is how many people can sleep independently of one another — not the floor area.
- Fourth floor without a lift. Every change of linen is carried up stairs by hand, and cleaning firms price that in. On top of that, families with pushchairs and older guests drop out as a guest segment. Not a bar, but an item that becomes measurable over a year.
- Strict house rules with sensitive neighbours. Where quiet hours are tightly drawn and the neighbours have lived in the building a long time, the first complaint is a matter of weeks. The most frequent reason a working relationship ends is not the figures — it is the neighbours.
- A high long-term rent by the lake. A four-room flat in Kilchberg with a lake view achieves long-term rents that short-term letting can only match at high occupancy. Our calculator shows both sides; with properties like these the comparison more often goes against us.
- An empty flat and tight capital. Furnishing is an investment made before the first booking — beds, mattresses, textiles in triplicate, kitchen, table, blackout blinds. Anyone financing that on credit and counting on the first year runs into the ramp-up phase: a new listing reaches market occupancy only after around six months.
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 then
In the two exclusion cases: long-term letting or sale. Anyone who bought a flat in order to let it short-term, where the zone does not permit it, has a valuation problem — the property has to be valued on the calculation of a long-term tenancy, and that changes the price you can justify considerably.
In the other five: it is worth calculating the figure rather than estimating it. With the large flat and few sleeping places, a structural change sometimes helps — a bedroom that can be closed off instead of a connecting room changes the guest segment. With the high long-term rent by the lake nothing helps, but a long-term tenancy is not a bad business either.
What we do if one of these cases applies: we say so in the first conversation and work through the long-term tenancy. Not after three months of operation, when the furnishings have already been paid for.
Frequently asked questions
If it does not pay, yes. Our commission depends on revenue — a property that does not perform costs us more effort than it brings in. We have no interest in setting it up.
From your municipality’s building authority (Bauamt). The information is free of charge, and it is the only binding kind. We do not advise on it — what we do say is where you have to ask.
Then we work it through in the first conversation, with your figures and both routes. Where the result is marginal, the question is not only the amount but what the flexibility is worth to you — a flat you can use yourself is a different thing from one with a long-term tenant.
And for your property?
Sources
State of our research: 31 July 2026. Official rules change — check the current position with the competent authority.
