The present invention provides a method for manufacture of supported noble metal based alloy catalysts with a high degree of alloying and a small crystallite size. The method is based on the use of polyol solvents as reaction medium and comprises of a two-step reduction process in the presence of a support material. In the first step, the first metal (M1=transition metal; e.g. Co, Cr, Ru) is activated by increasing the reaction temperature to 80 to 160.degree. C. In the second step, the second metal (M2=noble metal; e.g. Pt, Pd, Au and mixtures thereof) is added and the slurry is heated to the boiling point of the polyol solvent in a range of 160 to 300.degree. C. Due to this two-step method, an uniform reduction occurs, resulting in noble metal based catalysts with a high degree of alloying and a small crystallite size of less than 3 nm. Due to the high degree of alloying, the lattice constants are lowered. The catalysts manufactured according to the method are used as electrocatalysts for polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEMFC), direct-methanol fuel cells (DMFC) or as gas phase catalysts for CO oxidation or exhaust gas purification.