Tiny house in Switzerland: the 20 most common questions.
Twenty tiny house questions per country — permits, delivery, customs, connections, winter use, cost and letting. The answers are project orientation and do not replace a ruling from the responsible authority.
As a rule, yes. Once a unit stands permanently in one place and is used for occupation, Switzerland treats it in planning law as a structure. the municipality together with the canton is responsible. Whether a procedure applies, and which one, is decided at the specific plot — not by the product.
the municipality together with the canton. MODUNERA supplies the building and the technical documentation; the decision on admissibility, procedure and conditions rests entirely with that body. Get the answer in writing before you order.
the municipal land-use plan and the zoning ordinance governs. It sets the permissible type of use, the way of building, the buildable area and the servicing. A plot with the wrong designation for your project cannot be rescued by any technical solution.
Permanent living is possible inside the building zone where the zone permits residential use and the Baubewilligung is granted. Outside the building zone, living is admissible only in narrowly defined exceptions — the most common reason Swiss projects fail.
Camping and holiday zones have their own rules, often with limits on length of stay. In tourist municipalities, second-home regulations apply on top.
Permanent placement decides in Switzerland too. If the unit stays and is lived in, it requires approval — the wheels change nothing.
As project orientation we work with roughly 7,900 € ex works to the agreed point in Switzerland. The figure includes handling at the EU external border. The final amount depends on route, access, crane requirement and date; a freight commitment only exists with the checked quotation.
The unit travels whole on a low-loader. The route runs overland with border clearance on entry into Switzerland; for alpine sites the mountain approach to the plot has to be checked early. The exact date is fixed together with the unloading point, because in practice the last hundred metres cause more trouble than the route.
Switzerland is not part of the EU customs union. Import means clearance, import tax and handling charges; your customs agent confirms the items before delivery.
Swiss VAT at the standard rate of 8.1 per cent applies on import. As of 2026-08-14. The rules in force at the time of delivery govern; the tax treatment of your specific case is for your tax adviser to confirm.
Pad, strip or screw foundation, depending on soil, frost depth and what the permit requires. Frost depth and snow load rise markedly with altitude; founding is specified by municipality, not by country. The work is carried out locally; we supply the load assumptions and bearing points.
Up to the plot boundary by the local utilities, from there by local trades. Cost is driven almost entirely by the distance to the existing network. The municipality sets connection conditions and fees; in scattered settlements the distances can be the single largest cost block.
Inside the building zone a connection is generally expected. Autonomous solutions are conceivable in special cases and with cantonal agreement.
Yes, and Switzerland demands the most differentiated specification: snow load and heating season differ substantially between Ticino and 1,500 metres. Insulation thickness, glazed area, ventilation and heating system are decided together before production, not retrofitted.
By heating season, snow load zone and wind zone at the actual address. Alpine sites are insulated considerably more heavily and the roof load assumption is set higher than on the Mittelland. A build-up that is enough for a summer unit is too thin for permanent living at the same address.
Ex-works base plus delivery gives the first number; foundation, connections, unloading, local planning, permit fees and insurance come on top. Count these from the start, or the budget moves after the order is placed.
MD 6 is the most common choice in Switzerland — a pitched roof for snow shedding and a build-up for long heating seasons. On the Mittelland, MD 1 follows.
Short-term letting is regulated at cantonal and municipal level; in tourist municipalities second-home and visitor-tax rules apply as well.
Transport cover for the delivery, building or natural-hazard cover for operation, and operator liability if you let it. Settle cover before delivery — afterwards your negotiating position is worse.
Five things: a written answer from the municipality together with the canton on admissibility; access and unloading point with photographs and dimensions; servicing and the distance to the network; the type of use with the number of people; and the budget range including the secondary items. With those five, an enquiry becomes a plannable project.
As of 2026-08-14. All figures are non-binding project guidance and not legal, authority, structural, energy or tax advice. Prices are ex-works indications; only a checked quotation is binding.