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In Shanghai, globalised urban images and a well‐functioning accumulation regime are enthusiastically sought after by urban policy, and explicitly promoted as a blueprint for a civilised city life. The city is celebrating its thriving neo‐liberal urbanism by implementing enormous new‐build gentrification, mostly in the form of demolition–rebuild development involving direct displacement of residents and landscapes. This study aims to understand demographic changes and the socioeconomic consequences of new‐build gentrification in central Shanghai. The paper first examines demographic changes between 1990 and 2000 in central Shanghai, i.e. the changing distribution of potential gentrifiers and displacees. It then looks into two cases of new‐build gentrification projects in central Shanghai, to compare residents' socioeconomic profiles in old neighbourhoods and new‐build areas. This study also examines the …