GettyWe all love London but living there is just too expensive, so much so even Samsung won’t set up an office in the capital.
Samsung Next, a $150 million technology fund owned by the South Korean company, has chosen to have its European HQ in Berlin instead of London because there were no reasonably priced neighbourhoods left.
Felix Petersen, the managing director, has told The Times that the cost of living in the city meant that it was ‘increasingly hard for people to build companies’.
GettyHe told the paper:
In London, the cost of living, the cost of getting around and the infrastructure mean it’s not a fun place to live unless you are really rich, especially for young people.
In Berlin, you can do stuff without much money.
You can bike around or sit in a park.
There are uncommercialised zones.
Petersen also added that it is virtually impossible to have children in the capital because it is so pricey to live there.
This is a managing director who clearly cares a lot about the happiness and quality of lifestyle his employees have.
GettyThe average house price in London has come close to £500,000 making making it one of the world’s most expensive cities.
Berlin is considered to be relatively affordable, especially when you compare it to other German cities such as Munich and Frankfurt.
Hopefully if companies such as Samsung are refusing to set up shop in London, the cost of living there will gradually start to reduce.
We can only dream though.
