Evaluation of urban regeneration areas using target group analysis: an update of the situation in Budapest districts IX and VIII

This paper continues prior work with the aim of evaluating the success of urban regeneration areas based on changes in property prices when compared with changes in quality. The main idea is to distinguish between cases where price is affected, either negatively or positively, by a government intervention in a situation when the price trend is confirmed to be caused by scarcity (or abundance), quality improvement (reduction) or something more oriented towards changes in the relevant institutional circumstances. The evidence comprises price and neighbourhood quality changes in residential areas undergoing urban regeneration, based on target vs. comparative group analysis and site visits in downtown Budapest (Hungary). The findings add detail to the corresponding results from the prior study where price developments rather neatly could be related to either scarcity or quality upgrade. However, the present study only partially shows same results. As the data and methods are the same, the reasons have to be related to a change in urban and neighbourhood change processes taking place in the area of study. Another issue is that the price development in this study has covered an economic downturn in property prices caused by the global financial crisis, which generates further research questions