I moved to Berlin recently from Sydney. My rent is 60% of what I was paying in Sydney, and for a nicer apartment. I can't believe more people aren't moving here.

(Maybe I shouldn't say so. Keep the secret to those who know.)

It's not much of a secret? Berlin has been growing fast these past few years, as are real estate prices:

http://www.thelocal.de/20150707/politicians-struggle-to-keep...

And while rents are still cheap compared to other large western cities, they went (and are going) through about the same curve as these more expensive cities - it simply started lower here.

Well, as someone who's considering Australia and NZ as potential destinations, both language and visa situations are big hurdles to clear for moving to Berlin.

Maybe you have an European or U.S. citizenship, but they're harder towards South Americans. Also, software development salaries weren't something to write home about last time I checked (that was some a long time ago admittedly).

Edit: According to Glassdoor, Berlin Software Engineer Salary: €48000 (average)

Sydney Software Engineer Salary: $80000 (average)

I wouldn't touch a Software Engineering job in Sydney at $80,000. That doesn't buy much of a lifestyle in one of the world's most expensive cities.

Visas are pretty easy to come by in Berlin - google "EU Blue Card".

Thanks, that's a relatively new development, I wasn't aware of it.

$80k AUD is €50k, sounds pretty close to me.

So, not worth jumping through all the extra inmigration hoops compared to Australia or New Zealand, not to mention the language barrier.

My grandfather was German-born and they didn't grant the citizeship to him, and I remember the ridiculous requirements he faced trying to get it (and he was more German than most actual Germans, a Fischer Reuter Spangemberg and more German surnames all the way down)

http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/skilled-immigran...

"The paperwork is nightmarishly complex and requires a wealth of information, with endless pages and extra documents. Sometimes translations are required, sometimes not. In fact, she no longer sends the papers off without consulting an expert. Anders works as the human resources manager for Adidas. She is looking for skilled workers in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. These days, even a company like Adidas rarely finds new employees in Germany, especially IT experts and designers."

Yeah I guess it depends on your situation. For us it was a lot easier due to EU freedom of movement laws. It just sounded funny ("funny") cause it always seemed so much easier than moving to the US when I looked into it.

I also know a lot of Israelis who got German citizenships via their grandparents, but there might be special rules that make it easier for victims of the nazis (and their descendants) or people that fled the country.

Either way the salary is probably never a reason to move to Germany (I don't think wages are higher than in any other western country), I meant more like that it's not a reason NOT to move in that particular example.

However, after taxes, you're looking at about €29k, as opposed to $60k (€38k).

Not sure where you got that number, I've never paid 40% tax on my income in Germany (despite earning more than €48k per year).

Berlin seems like an amazing value for a capital city with rich culture.

Here in Boston I'm paying 3700 euros for (poorly maintained) 90 sqm, of course split with five people. Maybe it is time to consider a stint in Berlin.

Are there any resources you would recommend to learn more about the city, and the tech scene?

I've lived in Boston, DC, NYC and London for extended periods of time, and spent a stint in Berlin. It's tech scene is awesome - if you find the right group of people it feels like CCC year round. It's art, music and food scene was an amazing value for the money when I was there circa 2011.

I'm guessing the equivalent of their hipsters got wise to it and drove up prices a la the gentrification you saw (compare the between the dirty-grimy NYC of the "Taxi Driver" 1970s vs the clean power-tie NYC of the 1980s bond-trading years, or the early 2000s Williamsburg where the rent was somewhat reasonable vs 2010 where anything on the L costed literally 3 times as much because every white kid with a fixie had his parents pay his $2600 rent, etc. $800/mo on a split isn't too bad for Boston if you're anywhere close to a decent spot on the T, considering the supply/demand (it's arguably the biggest college region in the US - between Cambridge, Boston and BC in Newton it's probably the densest student:non-student ratio in the US). Berlin had that vibrant feeling that's hard to explain but yeah the tech scene was (and hopefully still is) spectacular, especially re: the hardware hacking scene when I was there and it's certainly worth a visit.

Edit: http://ccc.de/ In math if you solve something major, odds are you'll wait till that years AMS Symposium to present; if you crack the PS3, CCC is where fail0verflow went to present. (Don't write them off because of their l33t-name, these guys aren't script kiddies -- these hacks are worthy of PhD theses if you see the detail of reverse engineering they go into.).

CCC?

Chaos Computer Club - Europe's largest association of hackers (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaos_Computer_Club)