{"id":3019,"date":"2016-06-21T22:50:19","date_gmt":"2016-06-21T20:50:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wlappe.com\/en\/?p=3019"},"modified":"2020-01-22T12:15:44","modified_gmt":"2020-01-22T10:15:44","slug":"doing-business-in-berlin-vi-living-here","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wlappe.com\/en\/2016\/06\/doing-business-in-berlin-vi-living-here.html","title":{"rendered":"Doing business in Berlin VI: Living here"},"content":{"rendered":"

The quality of life in Berlin is good<\/strong> but the winter weather is not (although it\u2019s not been bad the last 3 years). The city is still cheap – a bit less than Madrid or Barcelona and half the cost of Paris, a third of London. You\u2019ll pay for renting an apartment, but probably you don\u2019t need a car (many people use bikes or share cars). Food, restaurants, and pubs are not expensive. Let\u2019s say with 1500\u20ac net per month (+300\u20ac health insurance if you\u2019re freelance) you can have an easy but cozy life and with 3000\u20ac \u00a0per month you can have a really good lifestyle. You can find a quite accurate overview about living costs here in numbeo<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Finding an Airbnb or temporary solution<\/strong> like a shared apartment is possible, though time-consuming, but you\u2019ll feel the landing is easier than expected. On the other hand, getting approved for a good, inexpensive house is difficult. Either way, once you find a place that fits your budget, location needs and social life, you\u2019ll feel a warm welcome from the city. But along the way, your life may feel out of control.<\/strong> You\u2019re more involved in the German language and the bureaucracy. But don\u2019t worry, it evens out after the rough start. That\u2019s when you change from being a digital nomad to a Berliner.<\/p>\n

Of course one of the hot topics is weather<\/strong>, many people are afraid of this. The last three years were warm, but that includes some days of snow and cold temperatures. It\u2019s not a tragedy, but sometimes it\u2019s annoying. And when you have the right clothes it\u2019s better. This means that many people escape the city during winter, especially foreigners, digital nomads, and small teams. So January and February are not really active for the startup scene.<\/p>\n

But from spring to October, many people decide to enjoy Berlin for a short time. Some of these people will move to the city but many are temporary. This adds fresh contacts but difficult long-term relationships.<\/p>\n

\"berlin_spring\"<\/p>\n

And don\u2019t forget the food<\/strong>. German cuisine<\/strong> is not the most recognized around the world, but it\u2019s simple, well done, tasty and cheap<\/strong>. The traditional dish is meat, vegetables and potatoes, any kind and preparation, but I think that\u2019s excellent. In Berlin you can also find any kind of international food<\/strong>. There are lots of small places, similar to take-away or street-food that are good and cheap. Now you can find new and hip restaurants, probably more expensive than the average but still convenient. And always you can accompany your meal with a great beer<\/strong>, perfectly served and from a large selection.<\/p>\n

Creating personal relationships<\/strong> at coworking or events can be easy, of course depending on your character. It\u2019s especially easy with foreigners, because they usually don\u2019t have a solid group of friends. These relationships aren\u2019t very solid because of the high rate of movement of the people. Many people are here only for a few months, so every 6 months you have to remove 50% of your contacts. This rotation also makes many people, even me, lazy about creating relationships \u00a0that may only last a few months.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s natural and easy to build relationships with people from your own country<\/strong>, if you\u2019re foreigner. Cultural norms facilitate making plans to meet and appointments\u2026 but that\u2019s probably \u00a0not the best idea if you\u2019re in an international city. I think this can only be an occasional plan, not the key to your social life.<\/p>\n

Your work style makes a big difference. If you\u2019re in a company, you\u2019ll do things with colleagues, establishing few but intense relationships. In many startups, team building activities are common. If you\u2019re freelance or starting your own company, you\u2019ll meet a lot of people, but in a superficial way. Because of the amount of events I personally attend, and the number of people I meet every year (around 1000 per year) I don\u2019t seek out new relationships. But remember that as a freelancer<\/strong> you won\u2019t have work colleagues, so you should actively work on building contacts and relationships<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

In the international environment of Berlin, the universal language is English<\/strong>. It sounds weird if you\u2019re learning German, but you won\u2019t have the chance for many conversations in this language. Of course there are groups of \u201clocals\u201d but it\u2019s not easy to access to them.<\/p>\n

Because the German lifestyle<\/strong> isn\u2019t open to creating fast relationships, you\u2019ll need to find a balance, being proactive but not too \u00a0intense<\/strong>. If you\u2019re under 30 years old you may have an easier time of it, probably because of party and nightlife plans. But the key is building relationships step by step. Once more, here it\u2019s about confidence, not about passion, and I mostly agree with this style.<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

You can read more in:
\nDoing business in Berlin I<\/a>
\nDoing business in Berlin II: events and networking<\/a>
\nDoing business in Berlin III: coworking and accelerators<\/a>
\nDoing business in Berlin IV: market and trends<\/a>
\nDoing business in Berlin V: Incorporating in Germany<\/a>
\nDoing business in Berlin VI: Living here<\/a>
\nDoing business in Berlin VII: Salaries and taxes<\/a>
\nDoing business in Berlin VIII: Hiring in Berlin (and what to expect if you\u2019re looking for a job)<\/a>
\nDoing business in Berlin IX: final thoughts<\/a>
\nBrexit: an opportunity for Berlin to grow<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The quality of life in Berlin is good but the winter weather is not (although it\u2019s not been bad the last 3 years). The city is still cheap – a bit less than Madrid or Barcelona and half the cost of Paris, a third of London. You\u2019ll pay for renting an apartment, but probably you […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3020,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[126,121],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3019","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-berlin","category-insights"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wlappe.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3019","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wlappe.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wlappe.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wlappe.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wlappe.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3019"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.wlappe.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3019\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3496,"href":"https:\/\/www.wlappe.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3019\/revisions\/3496"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wlappe.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3020"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wlappe.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3019"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wlappe.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3019"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wlappe.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3019"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}