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Where building applications are published — different in every language region

Amtsblatt, Feuille des avis officiels, Foglio ufficiale: one duty, three systems, three vocabularies.

The duty is the same everywhere

Every building project has to be published officially before the permit is granted — everywhere in Switzerland. What differs is the publication organ and the wording. Search in one language only and you see a part of the market only.

German-speaking Switzerland

Publication happens in the cantonal Amtsblatt and in the municipality’s own organ, often the local paper. The words to know: Baugesuch (the application), Einsprachefrist (objection period), Bauherrschaft (building owner), Parzelle (parcel). Some cantons also run a central electronic portal.

French-speaking Switzerland

The central organ is the canton’s Feuille des avis officiels (FAO) — the Bulletin officiel in Valais, the Journal officiel in Jura. The procedure is the mise à l’enquête publique, the period the délai d’opposition, the building owner the maître d’ouvrage. Note when searching: in Switzerland the permit is usually an autorisation de construirepermis de construire is the French term and returns French results.

Ticino

Publication happens in the canton’s Foglio ufficiale and on the municipality’s albo comunale. The procedure is the domanda di costruzione, an objection an opposizione, the building owner the committente, the parcel the mappale.

Bilingual cantons

Valais, Fribourg and Bern publish in one language or the other depending on the municipality: a project in Sion appears in French, one in Visp in German — same canton. A canton code therefore says nothing about the language a building application appears in. That is why we sort a project by the language of its publication, not by its canton.

What this means for your search

Keeping an eye on the whole country would mean following 26 cantonal organs and hundreds of municipal publications, in three languages, every day. That is the part we take over: we process all of those sources and report every new residential project in your chosen area, whatever language it was published in. Set up an alert — or first read how a project runs from application to moving in.

Frequently asked questions

What is the building application called in the different language regions?
«Baugesuch» in German-speaking Switzerland, «mise à l'enquête publique» or «demande de permis de construire» in Romandie, «domanda di costruzione» in Ticino. It is always the same official publication.
Where do the French-speaking cantons publish their building applications?
In the canton's Feuille officielle or Feuille des avis officiels and on municipal portals. Fribourg, Vaud, Neuchâtel, Geneva and Jura each run their own system.
Do I need to read all national languages?
No. Zuerst zuhause shows every project in German, French, Italian and English. The original publication stays linked.

Guide: finding, understanding and financing a new build