The craving of cities for investment, capital and persisting in a global competition is what provoked Neil Smith (2002) to argue that gentrification has found its way into urban policies in the 21st century. Today, governmental strategies fostering revalorisa-tion can be found in cities around the globe. Besides a detailed literature analyses on the state of the art of gentrification, a comparative approach was chosen to study and evalu-ate governmental strategies and projects in areas where

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... trification happens. Thus, the neighbourhoods of Inner-Józsefváros in Budapest and Brunnenviertel in Vienna have been investigated. The main finding of this study is that gentrification is used as a governmental strategy in both cities. However, whereas increasing the competitiveness of the district and the whole city is the goal in Budapest, in Vienna projects leading to the upgrading of the area are initiated to create a social balance in a disadvantaged neighbourhood.