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> Berlin offers developers the biggest bang for their buck, with high offered salaries and a low cost of living. That's not really correct (speaking as a forme

> Berlin offers developers the biggest bang for their buck, with high offered salaries and a low cost of living. That's not really correct (speaking as a former Berlin resident who left mid pandemic). Berlin has become incredibly expensive due to the housing crisis, and developer salaries just aren't making it worthwhile living there - as opposed to other cities where you pay about the same rent/bills, but make 50%+ more. Berlin can be cheap rent-wise if you are willing to live in a WG (shared apartment), or manage to take over someone else's lease. If you are a new resident, or move to a new apartment there? You are basically fucked. London gives better "bang for buck", financially speaking, than Berlin these days, and I never thought I'd be saying that.

ChuckNorris89 4y ago
> If you are a new resident, or move to a new apartment there? You are basically fucked. It's funny how Berlin/Germany just can't manage to point the gun away from it's foot when it comes to building affordable housing and energy independence. It's as if Germans have some economic masochistic tendencies and just enjoy being gouged until they can't afford to live anymore, thinking that salvation consists in more regulations, instead of just investing in housing/energy.
- nibbleshifter 4y ago
  I was living there during the Berlin city governments (failed eventually) attempt to control rent by just regulating it down - they assigned an actual value to each apartment, and mandated that was the new rent. Naturally, the estate agencies took them to court over the extremely debatable constitutionality of this. We kept paying our old (not revised) rent based on some legal advice while the court case went on. The difference was close to a thousand euros per month (dramatically overvalued tiny, old apartment) People who switched to the lower rent, ended up being forced to make back payments, which financially crippled a lot of people I knew there. This happened alongside corona, so it wasn't like people could just easily hold on to money.
- BlargMcLarg 4y ago
  This is not unique to Germans, FWIW. RE is increasing all over Europe yet companies are trying to keep pre-COVID packages with a 'hybrid working' label added on. Yes, those same packages that were already low enough to make things uncomfortable in certain areas.

ChuckNorris89 4y ago

> If you are a new resident, or move to a new apartment there? You are basically fucked. It's funny how Berlin/Germany just can't manage to point the gun away from it's foot when it comes to building affordable housing and energy independence. It's as if Germans have some economic masochistic tendencies and just enjoy being gouged until they can't afford to live anymore, thinking that salvation consists in more regulations, instead of just investing in housing/energy.

nibbleshifter 4y ago
I was living there during the Berlin city governments (failed eventually) attempt to control rent by just regulating it down - they assigned an actual value to each apartment, and mandated that was the new rent. Naturally, the estate agencies took them to court over the extremely debatable constitutionality of this. We kept paying our old (not revised) rent based on some legal advice while the court case went on. The difference was close to a thousand euros per month (dramatically overvalued tiny, old apartment) People who switched to the lower rent, ended up being forced to make back payments, which financially crippled a lot of people I knew there. This happened alongside corona, so it wasn't like people could just easily hold on to money.
BlargMcLarg 4y ago
This is not unique to Germans, FWIW. RE is increasing all over Europe yet companies are trying to keep pre-COVID packages with a 'hybrid working' label added on. Yes, those same packages that were already low enough to make things uncomfortable in certain areas.