diff --git a/.changeset/tricky-books-study.md b/.changeset/tricky-books-study.md
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..93069e3eea0b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.changeset/tricky-books-study.md
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+---
+"@sveltejs/kit": patch
+---
+
+fix: fall back to importing dynamic dependencies relative to SvelteKit package
diff --git a/packages/kit/src/core/sync/utils.js b/packages/kit/src/core/sync/utils.js
index cf35fadb4940..304e9180a77b 100644
--- a/packages/kit/src/core/sync/utils.js
+++ b/packages/kit/src/core/sync/utils.js
@@ -3,15 +3,8 @@ import path from 'node:path';
 import { mkdirp } from '../../utils/filesystem.js';
 import { resolve_peer_dependency } from '../../utils/import.js';
 
-/** @type {string} */
-let VERSION;
-
-try {
-	({ VERSION } = await resolve_peer_dependency('svelte/compiler'));
-} catch {
-	// we can end up here from e.g. unit tests. this is the simplest fix
-	({ VERSION } = await import('svelte/compiler'));
-}
+/** @type {{ VERSION: string }} */
+const { VERSION } = await resolve_peer_dependency('svelte/compiler');
 
 /** @type {Map<string, string>} */
 const previous_contents = new Map();
diff --git a/packages/kit/src/utils/import.js b/packages/kit/src/utils/import.js
index ca49592e492b..87f275e36d3d 100644
--- a/packages/kit/src/utils/import.js
+++ b/packages/kit/src/utils/import.js
@@ -3,14 +3,14 @@ import { pathToFileURL } from 'node:url';
 
 /**
  * Resolve a dependency relative to the current working directory,
- * rather than relative to this package
+ * rather than relative to this package (but falls back to trying that, if necessary)
  * @param {string} dependency
  */
-export function resolve_peer_dependency(dependency) {
+export async function resolve_peer_dependency(dependency) {
 	try {
 		// @ts-expect-error the types are wrong
 		const resolved = imr.resolve(dependency, pathToFileURL(process.cwd() + '/dummy.js'));
-		return import(resolved);
+		return await import(resolved).catch(() => import(dependency));
 	} catch {
 		throw new Error(
 			`Could not resolve peer dependency "${dependency}" relative to your project — please install it and try again.`