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Developer here looking to possibly relocate from London to Berlin or other German (or Dutch) place, I have a question for anyone filling out this poll: I spend

by dreen 13y ago

Developer here looking to possibly relocate from London to Berlin or other German (or Dutch) place, I have a question for anyone filling out this poll: I spend on avarage about £700 a month excluding rent, which allows for relatively comfortable life in London. What spending can I expect in Berlin? What about rent? (I pay £425 which is pretty cheap for London)

deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
vincentkriek 13y ago
Eindhoven is cool as well!
- radicalbyte 13y ago
  ..and booming, there are a lot of very interesting companies and jobs there. Shame that it's 90 mins drive from here :(
64mb 13y ago
Whoa, where are you living on that kinda rent? I pay almost double.
- quarterto 13y ago
  > excluding rent edit: Ok, so I should have read to the end. Yeah, £425 is ridiculously cheap for London.
resiros 13y ago
For the rent in Berlin calculate circa. 10 euro per square meter. Generally life in Berlin is cheap (For around 1200 Euros you can have a nice life).
ccbrandenburg 13y ago
You can find extremely nice places for around 500-700 Euros per Month depending on where you want to live. Demand for flats is extremely high so it's really a matter of luck. Another 700 Euros to live very comfortably in Berlin (Lunch, occasional dinner, going out on weekends). Standards of living are extremely high in Berlin. I can only recommend this city!
gst 13y ago
In which part of London do you get an apartment for £425? I had the impression that you have to pay at least 3x that amount to get a reasonable apartment in a somewhat central place.
- alexchamberlain 13y ago
  I pay ~£1000 mortgage in a reasonable area within 15 minutes of centre. Renting is more expensive.
- dreen 13y ago
  Greenwich/Lewisham area in Zone 2. It depends, my house is pretty low standard though.
- ollysb 13y ago
  There's plenty of low cost housing in London, it's just that you won't be living anywhere near the bits of London that you're thinking of ;) I used to live in an old edwardian house in Greenwich, it's a nice area and doesn't take too long to get into the centre.
- cobrophy 13y ago
  I pay a similar amount sharing with two friends in Clapham/Balham. It helps that we've been in the same place for 4 years so the rent hasn't gone up too much over that period.
maciejgryka 13y ago
I've just made the same move, feel free to get in touch if you have any more questions! I've only been here for about 3 weeks so far, so don't have much data, but €500/month for living costs seems easy. Rent, depending on what you want, is probably about 80% of what you pay for a comparable flat in London. You can probably get 2 bedrooms (+living room) with all the bills included for about €800. Just be prepared for seriously unfurnished flats: sometimes you need to get your own kitchen! Also it apparently takes a lot more time and paperwork than in London to find something - people say 3-4 months is normal and I'm still looking. Good luck!
- levosmetalo 13y ago
  One tip about finding an apartment from another foreigner in Germany... Just find some local friend that speaks local dialect and ask him to call landlords for you. It can make your "time to apartment" much shorter (and cheaper).
  - maciejgryka 13y ago
    That's so true. I'm lucky to have a German-speaking girlfriend and it makes a huge difference.
- superplussed 13y ago
  When people say that it will take 3-4 months to find an apartment, what are they doing in the meantime? Renting short-term apartments such as sublets?
  - rglullis 13y ago
    Yes. It took me 2 months to find a place in a WG. In the mean time I was hopping around AirBNB and friends.
  - killerpopiller 13y ago
    ..living your way up, stay in a shitty flat and search from there for a better one. It depends of course where you are, but we (WG) searched for a new flat five months.
hazelnut 13y ago
Lived one year in London and 5 years in Berlin. In general rent is much cheaper in Berlin. So with £425 you can find a good apartment. It depends a bit on the area, how much space and what kind of extras you need. Check out immobilienscout24.de, immonet.de or immowelt.de Living costs are in general also cheaper. Take a look for Aldi or Lidl for cheap grocery. You can safe there up to 50%. With £700 a month you won't have any problems.
jk4930 13y ago
Cost of living (comparing London to Berlin): http://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/compare_cities.jsp?country1=United+Kingdom&city1=London&country2=Germany&city2=Berlin http://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/compare_cities.jsp?coun... Cost of living (as of Jan2014): http://www.expatistan.com/cost-of-living/berlin http://www.expatistan.com/cost-of-living/berlin Map of rent prices: http://www.stadtentwicklung.berlin.de/wohnen/mietspiegel/de/wohnlagenkarte.shtml http://www.stadtentwicklung.berlin.de/wohnen/mietspiegel/de/...

by dreen 13y ago

deleted 13y ago

[deleted]

vincentkriek 13y ago

Eindhoven is cool as well!

radicalbyte 13y ago
..and booming, there are a lot of very interesting companies and jobs there. Shame that it's 90 mins drive from here :(

64mb 13y ago

Whoa, where are you living on that kinda rent? I pay almost double.

quarterto 13y ago
> excluding rent edit: Ok, so I should have read to the end. Yeah, £425 is ridiculously cheap for London.

resiros 13y ago

For the rent in Berlin calculate circa. 10 euro per square meter. Generally life in Berlin is cheap (For around 1200 Euros you can have a nice life).

ccbrandenburg 13y ago

You can find extremely nice places for around 500-700 Euros per Month depending on where you want to live. Demand for flats is extremely high so it's really a matter of luck. Another 700 Euros to live very comfortably in Berlin (Lunch, occasional dinner, going out on weekends). Standards of living are extremely high in Berlin. I can only recommend this city!

gst 13y ago

In which part of London do you get an apartment for £425? I had the impression that you have to pay at least 3x that amount to get a reasonable apartment in a somewhat central place.

alexchamberlain 13y ago
I pay ~£1000 mortgage in a reasonable area within 15 minutes of centre. Renting is more expensive.
dreen 13y ago
Greenwich/Lewisham area in Zone 2. It depends, my house is pretty low standard though.
ollysb 13y ago
There's plenty of low cost housing in London, it's just that you won't be living anywhere near the bits of London that you're thinking of ;) I used to live in an old edwardian house in Greenwich, it's a nice area and doesn't take too long to get into the centre.
cobrophy 13y ago
I pay a similar amount sharing with two friends in Clapham/Balham. It helps that we've been in the same place for 4 years so the rent hasn't gone up too much over that period.

maciejgryka 13y ago

I've just made the same move, feel free to get in touch if you have any more questions! I've only been here for about 3 weeks so far, so don't have much data, but €500/month for living costs seems easy. Rent, depending on what you want, is probably about 80% of what you pay for a comparable flat in London. You can probably get 2 bedrooms (+living room) with all the bills included for about €800. Just be prepared for seriously unfurnished flats: sometimes you need to get your own kitchen! Also it apparently takes a lot more time and paperwork than in London to find something - people say 3-4 months is normal and I'm still looking. Good luck!

levosmetalo 13y ago
One tip about finding an apartment from another foreigner in Germany... Just find some local friend that speaks local dialect and ask him to call landlords for you. It can make your "time to apartment" much shorter (and cheaper).
- maciejgryka 13y ago
  That's so true. I'm lucky to have a German-speaking girlfriend and it makes a huge difference.
superplussed 13y ago
When people say that it will take 3-4 months to find an apartment, what are they doing in the meantime? Renting short-term apartments such as sublets?
- rglullis 13y ago
  Yes. It took me 2 months to find a place in a WG. In the mean time I was hopping around AirBNB and friends.
- killerpopiller 13y ago
  ..living your way up, stay in a shitty flat and search from there for a better one. It depends of course where you are, but we (WG) searched for a new flat five months.

hazelnut 13y ago

Lived one year in London and 5 years in Berlin. In general rent is much cheaper in Berlin. So with £425 you can find a good apartment. It depends a bit on the area, how much space and what kind of extras you need. Check out immobilienscout24.de, immonet.de or immowelt.de Living costs are in general also cheaper. Take a look for Aldi or Lidl for cheap grocery. You can safe there up to 50%. With £700 a month you won't have any problems.

jk4930 13y ago

Cost of living (comparing London to Berlin): http://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/compare_cities.jsp?country1=United+Kingdom&city1=London&country2=Germany&city2=Berlin http://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/compare_cities.jsp?coun... Cost of living (as of Jan2014): http://www.expatistan.com/cost-of-living/berlin http://www.expatistan.com/cost-of-living/berlin Map of rent prices: http://www.stadtentwicklung.berlin.de/wohnen/mietspiegel/de/wohnlagenkarte.shtml http://www.stadtentwicklung.berlin.de/wohnen/mietspiegel/de/...