diff --git a/packages/vaex-core/pyproject.toml b/packages/vaex-core/pyproject.toml
index fa4386c41..cb3c5bddb 100644
--- a/packages/vaex-core/pyproject.toml
+++ b/packages/vaex-core/pyproject.toml
@@ -4,6 +4,4 @@ requires = [
     "oldest-supported-numpy; python_version=='3.8'", # deprecated ref https://github.com/scipy/oldest-supported-numpy
     "numpy~=1.25; python_version>'3.8'",  # numpy~=2.0 fails, backward compatible build-system as of v1.25 ref https://numpy.org/doc/2.1/dev/depending_on_numpy.html#build-time-dependency
     "scikit-build",
-    "cmake",
-    "ninja"
 ]
diff --git a/packages/vaex-core/setup.py b/packages/vaex-core/setup.py
index 05baecdb3..a5055149e 100644
--- a/packages/vaex-core/setup.py
+++ b/packages/vaex-core/setup.py
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 from setuptools import setup
+import shutil
 import sys
 import os
 from importlib.machinery import SourceFileLoader
@@ -25,6 +26,11 @@
 url = "https://www.github.com/maartenbreddels/vaex"
 # TODO: after python2 supports frops, future and futures can also be dropped
 setup_requires = ["numpy~=1.17"]
+if use_skbuild:
+    if not shutil.which("cmake"):
+        setup_requires += ["cmake"]
+    if not shutil.which("ninja"):
+        setup_requires += ["ninja"]
 install_requires_core = [
     "numpy~=1.17",
     "aplus",