The Most Expensive Cities of Europe

These are lists of the world’s most expensive cities for expatriate employees (not residents), according to the cost-of-living surveys. If you want to move or just to visit one of those cities, consider your conditions twice!

Various factors enter into a city’s cost-of-living for expatriate employees, such as monetary value, consumer confidence, investment, interest rates, exchange rates of the country’s currency, and housing costs. Cost of living may be much higher for expatriates than for local residents in a developing country, especially if expatriates expect a standard of living similar to a developed country.

1) Zurich

2) Geneva

3) London

4) Basel

5) Lausanne

6) Reykjavik

7) Oslo

8) Lugano

9) Dublin

10) Copenhagen

23) Munich

46) Berlin

56) Barcelona

Not that long ago, UK citizen decided to leave the European Union… What a shock, pools were not optimistic regarding the results but still did not expect a majority of  “Leave” votes. Anyways, now, companies and people are wondering if they should stay in the UK. Either hoping for the best by staying or leave now while European cities fight to become the new London.

One of those cities is, of course, Berlin. The city of unlimited possibilities where old and new mix in a unique and charming way. Described as “Poor but Sexy” by its former Mayor, Klaus Wowereit, in a television interview from 2004. Berlin is also dynamic and always changing… Like a startup. In Berlin, every 20 minutes, a start-up is founded. This demonstrates the attraction to Startup that the city already has.

Key Criteria to Settle in

The European Startup Initiative pointed out 4 factors that founders use to decide where to set up their company.

The most noteworthy criteria is the talent acquisition possibilities. Even if usually startups start with less than 5 employees the goal is to grow fast and employ more and more people as the company grows. Consequently, if the city you settled in does not provide you the amount of talent you need to expand it is a real deal breaker.

As you can observe, the ecosystem is the second more important criteria. An ecosystem is a whole environment where startups can evolve in. Inside you can find institutions such as the universities (pool of talents), big companies, funding and support organizations etc. The ecosystem encompasses everything that could help a startup to grow.

In order to be a startup hub, Berlin needs to full fill those criteria and to possess a good ecosystem where a startup can evolve and grow.

This image was taken from the European Startup initiative’s Report & The Startup Heatmap Europe is based on an online survey opened to founders from November 2015 to April 2016.

Focus on the Ecosystem

This image was taken from the Startup Genome Report from 2017.

The Global Startups Ecosystem Ranking of 2017 from Startup Genome ranked in the first position the Silicon Valley, the innovation place by excellence. Home of Facebook, Google, Netflix and so many others, the Silicon Valley is not near to be dethroned. 

London arrives in 3d position and Berlin stand up in the 7th becoming the 1st EU city in this ranking. 

Consequently, we can say that Berlin has the best ecosystem for startups in the European Union.

How Berlin attempted and succeeded to become the European Startup Hub?

Now that we demonstrated how Berlin and European startup hub belong together, we can try to understand how Berlin is, by its events and population, providing a great ecosystem for startups to grow.

We organized with CBC “Europe’s hottest startup capital – Why Berlin?” in January and in March 2017 we organized with CCG the 3d Berlin International Entrepreneurship Forum: Startup Connect Berlin. Connecting Startups with Investors and institution it was a great way to connect, match B2B and B2G as well as increasing the knowledge transfer thanks to Senior high-level International Speaker. 

Light, funny and full of truth, the pitch doctor reloading Berlin pitch tells you why Berlin is the best choice for startups.

You can watch his speech from Startup Connect Berlin ?

His pitch really grasps what makes Berlin attractive even if buildings are not a pleasure for the eyes and despite all the things that could deter people to move in the city. Berlin stays charming and appealing by its unique architecture, inhabitants, culture and diversity.

Berlin still needs to maintain its 1st position by increasing its attraction

Finally, London still stays attractive on some points for startups and is still going out of the EU. So no one really knows what the outcome will be. In addition, Berlin is not the only city fighting to take over London’s title as European Startup Hub. Other European capitals like Barcelona, Amsterdam, Paris and way more are trying to attract startups. However, Berlin ecosystem is a big plus and so many events for startups are happening every day.

Will we see you at the next startup event, the Startup Jobs Fair 2017? 

Get your tickets here and come to the two networking party to have the opportunity to casually meet who might be your future employer. Attend the day fair to have the chance to convince hiring people that YOU are the one they need!

We look forward to seeing you at SJF17 and seeing if Berlin maintain its first position as the European Startup Hub in the years to come!

Do you think Berlin will remain 1st startup hub in the EU? Let us know in the comments!