Rich and poor in the Budapest housing market

A study of the changing patterns and extent of residential segregation in Budapest shows that, contrary to Iván Szelényi's well known critique of housing policy in the early socialist period, those decades saw a high degree of equality. This trend has been reversed in recent years. Following the almost complete withdrawal of the state from housing construction, ‘gentrification’ and the emergence of a stratum of ‘new rich’ are among the conspicuous features of the housing market today.