diff --git a/.changeset/gentle-spies-happen.md b/.changeset/gentle-spies-happen.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..faee9e8d42
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.changeset/gentle-spies-happen.md
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+---
+"svelte": patch
+---
+
+fix: more robust url equality check at dev time
diff --git a/packages/svelte/src/internal/client/render.js b/packages/svelte/src/internal/client/render.js
index d6ce2adc42..0658780b2f 100644
--- a/packages/svelte/src/internal/client/render.js
+++ b/packages/svelte/src/internal/client/render.js
@@ -2295,9 +2295,6 @@ export function attr(dom, attribute, value) {
 	}
 }
 
-/** @type {HTMLAnchorElement | undefined} */
-let src_url_equal_anchor;
-
 /**
  * @param {string} element_src
  * @param {string} url
@@ -2305,12 +2302,7 @@ let src_url_equal_anchor;
  */
 function src_url_equal(element_src, url) {
 	if (element_src === url) return true;
-	if (!src_url_equal_anchor) {
-		src_url_equal_anchor = document.createElement('a');
-	}
-	// This is actually faster than doing URL(..).href
-	src_url_equal_anchor.href = url;
-	return element_src === src_url_equal_anchor.href;
+	return new URL(element_src, document.baseURI).href === new URL(url, document.baseURI).href;
 }
 
 /** @param {string} srcset */