Introduction Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania (536.000 inhabitants in 2011), was greatly reshaped by processes of massive industrialisation and urbanisation during the communist period (Vanagas et al. 2002). The post-1990 period was also characterised by massive urban transitions triggered by reforms to a market-led neo-liberal economy (Aidukaitė 2014; Brade et al. 2009). These recent transitions resulted in an annihilation of public-housing policies and fast urban sprawl, stimulated by loosely regulated suburbanisation. At the same time fundamental changes took place in the Lithuanian society and economy, resulting in a changing occupational structure and an increase in social inequalities. It is likely that these inequalities also have a spatial dimension, but to date there has been no systematic research into the changing socio-spatial patterns of post-communist Vilnius.