Putting it that way it means that Berlin is a cheap city to rent an apartment. You are totally right about that. What is more interesting is that around EU pri

Putting it that way it means that Berlin is a cheap city to rent an apartment. You are totally right about that. What is more interesting is that around EU prices of cars / consumer electronics, etc is relatively the same [1]. Not to mention airplane tickets, holidays which also cost the same in London and Berlin, but guys from London can spend on these more. As a summary IMHO, having a small rent doesn't mean that competition rules shouldn't apply for Berlin and it's talent pool. From my perspective it looks like they don't. Founders put average salaries for their teams in their projection plans and in the end have their hands tied, because "no budget for 80k+ developer". It's a bit sad. Kudos to your companies ( exclude Zalando - sorry ) for putting more money for employees, nevertheless I consider them settled companies already, since they are huge. [1] : http://www.iclarified.com/55272/iphone-6-prices-around-the-world-ranked-from-most-expensive-to-least-chart http://www.iclarified.com/55272/iphone-6-prices-around-the-w...