Berlin! Berlin is by far the cheapest capital in Western Europe. You can get a nice sit down meal in a restaurant for 5-6 euros in the center of the city and rent a nice apartment for 500 euros a month.
There is a large tech scene and everyone speaks english here. It's sometimes hard to practice German because English is so common!
Berlin: One of the cheapest capitals in Europe, reasonably vibrant IT scene. Apartments inside the city can be had for as little as 300€ if you hunt long enough, although 600-700€ is becoming the new standard. Restaurants are cheap too: 5€ for lunch, 7-9€ for dinner. Lots of space, little traffic, the best public transport network in Europe, tons of lakes and green spaces.
Berlin is dead cheap. Cheap flats, cheap office space, several universities with CS programs, a laid-back life style, good living quality in many of the inner districts.
Just curious -- why is Berlin rent cheap? Seems like capital cities (or large cities in general), in wealthy Western countries, are generally really steep.
In my experience, London is more expensive than just about anywhere in the world. If you need cheap, my recommendation is Berlin, housing and office costs are very low, and if you are coming from anywhere else in Europe almost everyone speaks English which is quite handy
I think Berlin is a better place to be as the salaries are still alright when you look at the prices. Renting becomes more expensive each year. However, groceries, restaurants, and alcohol are dirt cheap compared to other capitals like Stockholm, Paris, or London.
What ? You would have said Paris I would totally agree but Berlin, really ? It's definetly not expensive to live here compared to other european capitals (buying a flat costs 3,036€[1] per square metter, compared to the 8000 you need in Paris) and even compared to other german big cities (München, Hamburg).
Warsaw.
Own 25 m2 flat: 600 usd
Cheap meals and fair price in good restaurants.
Best in Europe public transport 25 usd/m.
In general more than half cheaper than Berlin.
I’m curious how Europe’s tech hubs (specifically London, Paris, and Berlin) compare to U.S. cities.
I suspect Berlin would compare quite favorably, despite the relatively high German tax rate. I moved there 18 months ago and currently pay €500 ($565) for a one-bedroom apartment in a nice part of town (Prenzlauer Berg). In San Francisco, I paid 5X that for a studio apartment in Hayes Valley.
I currently live in Berlin which is getting borderline expensive (still much cheaper than almost any major western city - more so now with the weak euro). I've heard good things about the Czech republic and Bulgaria. Seems like Croatia isn't bad either.
"(even cheaper than any Eastern European capital)"
That may be true if you exclude Warsaw, Budapest, Prague, Bratislava, Bucharest, Sofia, Ljubljana, Zagreb, Belgrade, Sarajevo, Skopje, Riga, Talinn, Vilnius, Kiev, Bratislava and a few more:
http://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/rankings.jsp
Otherwise I agree with your 5 points. And Berlin is cheap in comparison with much of Western Europe.
Finding a flat in Berlin could be challenging. The prices are still way lower than SF, London or Paris. Two of us are sharing a pad in a pretty central location and pay 850 euros including bills and all.
Quick note: Spaniard here, lived in Berlin for two years and I can assure you that Barcelona is significantly more expensive for a comparable way of life. Berlin is a particularly cheap place to live.
Berlin is still extremely cheap. You can get fairly large 1BRs in nice, central areas neat Mitte for 400-500 EUR or even less. Larger apartments are not much more expensive. You can still find a largeish 2BR below 1000 EUR.
Probably true of locals of every city in the world but Berlin in particular is still very cheap relative to many western EU cities.
Numbeo cost of living index has it 153rd in the world including rent and it's well below places like Houston which is probably the cheapest large top tier city in the US.
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