Globalisation, institutional structures and real estate markets in central European cities

This paper examines the urban development process in post-socialist cities of Budapest, Prague and Warsaw in the context of economic globalisation and societal transformation. Several factors have helped to shape the post-socialist cities of central Europe since the end of the 1980s. These include political transformation, economic change, restitution, privatisation, price liberalisation and decentralisation of local government. It is argued that local government administrative and planning structures have been ill prepared in meeting the requirements of international investment capital in a co-ordinated and effective manner. Institutional constraints has promoted an organic form of urban development primarily determined through the international demand for, and supply of, commercial and retail space.