diff --git a/pkgs/applications/version-management/subversion/default.nix b/pkgs/applications/version-management/subversion/default.nix
index afef38d8b8c1..d981757990bf 100644
--- a/pkgs/applications/version-management/subversion/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/applications/version-management/subversion/default.nix
@@ -94,6 +94,12 @@ let
 
         patches = [ ./apr-1.patch ] ++ extraPatches;
 
+        # remove vendored swig-3 files as these will shadow the swig provided
+        # ones and result in compile errors
+        postPatch = ''
+          rm subversion/bindings/swig/proxy/{perlrun.swg,pyrun.swg,python.swg,rubydef.swg,rubyhead.swg,rubytracking.swg,runtime.swg,swigrun.swg}
+        '';
+
         # We are hitting the following issue even with APR 1.6.x
         # -> https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/SVN-4813
         # "-P" CPPFLAG is needed to build Python bindings and subversionClient