This paper will focus on various interrelated, intermingled but often divergent processes and phenomena condensed around the fall of communism in Budapest regarding the spatial structure and development of society and economy. It will demonstrate and analyze major tendencies, such as urban decay, gentrifi cation, suburbanization, emergence of polycentric spatial patterns, effects of globalization, and economic proceedings that have fundamentally altered the position and picture of Budapest and its metropolitan area. It will point out local characteristics as well as the effects of general trends of socio-spatial development on Budapest and its surroundings.