People who moved to Europe's priciest cities say it's worth it for a relaxed life with shorter work days and cheap childcare
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- European cities have some of the most expensive rents in the world, a new study found.
- Americans who moved to Europe have told BI that their quality of life has improved.
- We list the cost of living in 13 cities from Helsinki to Berlin — and what locals say about living there.
Ellie Owens, her husband, and three young children left Connecticut for Copenhagen in 2022.
They moved for work, but have stayed partly because they've found that the experience of raising young children is superior, and cheaper, in Denmark's capital.
"Daycare is astronomically cheaper here," Owens told Business Insider in October. "We were paying for my oldest to go three mornings a week to daycare in the US, and we were paying $2,600 a month. And here, I pay around $850 — maybe — for two children to get full-time care."
Owens, however, admitted that her monthly mortgage payments in the US were cheaper than rent in Copenhagen.
It's true: Large European cities are expensive. Copenhagen — along with London, Paris, Dublin, and more — ranked high on a new list of European cities with priciest rents, according to vacation-rental site Deluxe Homes.
Still, several Americans who recently moved to Europe's highest-rent cities have told BI they feel their journeys have been worth it.
In interviews conducted over the past few years, residents of Oslo, Berlin, Vienna, Helsinki, and more highlighted the many perks of life on the other side of the Atlantic, from free or subsidized childcare and shorter working hours. They also discussed some of the downsides beyond high rents, like difficulty making friends.
Read on for the cost of rent in 13 of the priciest European cities, in order from least to most expensive, as well as what locals have to say about the pros and cons of living there.
Deluxe Homes provided the apartment-size and rent data, and Business Insider converted it from square meters to square feet.
Mapics/Shutterstock
One-bedroom apartment size: 577.48 square feet
One-bedroom average price per month: $1,124.88
Price per square foot: $1.95
A Lisbon resident's perspective: Dan and Michelle Bagby took advantage of the then-wide-open immigration rules in Portugal and moved to Lisbon from Austin, Texas. The found a more laid-back lifestyle — which is sometimes a little too slow for them.
Scamrail1/Shutterstock
One-bedroom apartment size: 466.08 square feet
One-bedroom average price per month: $911.14
Price per square foot: $1.95
A Helsinki resident's perspective: Frank Martela relishes the social trust that Finland has and feels safe letting his three children move throughout the city on their own.
Yuliya_P/Shutterstock
One-bedroom apartment size: 413.33 square feet
One-bedroom average price per month: $862.09
Price per square foot: $2.09
A Vienna resident's perspective: Sonya Matejko, who moved to Vienna in 2022, actually found that rent is half of what it was for her in New York City, and that the overall cost of living is even lower than it is in her native Florida.
Oleksiy Mark/Shutterstock
One-bedroom apartment size: 538.20 square feet
One-bedroom average price per month: $1,124.16
Price per square foot: $2.09
A Stockholm resident's perspective: Bridget Borden was surprised by the healthy work-life balance in Stockholm, where employees are allowed 25 days of paid vacation after a year at a company.
S.Borisov/Shutterstock
One-bedroom apartment size: 497.29 square feet
One-bedroom average price per month: $1,144.47
Price per square foot: $2.30
A Berlin resident's perspective: Drew Philp, a freelance writer, moved to Berlin from Detroit in 2021 and found that Germany supports the arts and the environment better than the US.
Getty Images
One-bedroom apartment size: 492.45 square feet
One-bedroom average price per month: $1,145.48
Price per square foot: $2.33
A Prague resident's perspective: Elizabeth Long, who moved to Prague for two years with her two children, observed that Czechs give their kids more freedom and more outdoor time.
MasterLu/Getty Images
One-bedroom apartment size: 419.79 square feet
One-bedroom average price per month: $1,096.79
Price per square foot: $2.61
A Barcelona resident's perspective: Jordan Mautner left Los Angeles for Barcelona in 2020 and quickly learned that errands must be carefully timed to avoid the city's afternoon "siesta" closures.
Scott E Barbour/Getty Images
One-bedroom apartment size: 554.34 square feet
One-bedroom average price per month: $1,518.47
Price per square foot: $2.74
A Copenhagen resident's perspective: While Owens, the Connecticut to Copenhagen mover, enjoys raising children in Denmark's capital, she does miss the convenience and lower cost of shopping through Amazon.
Marina_89 / Shutterstock
One-bedroom apartment size: 430.56 square feet
One-bedroom average price per month: $1,205.08
Price per square foot: $2.80
An Oslo resident's perspective: Emily Northway moved to Oslo in 2014 and said it took her four years to find a good group of friends. The people — and weather — can be cold, she added.
Karl Hendon/Getty Images
One-bedroom apartment size: 532.81 square feet
One-bedroom average price per month: $1,626.98
Price per square foot: $3.05
An Amsterdam resident's perspective: Sara Wegman left the US for Amsterdam and found that most medicine is free. When it isn't, it's incredibly cheap — her inhaler cost around $4.
Peter Unger/Getty Images
One-bedroom apartment size: 588.25 square feet
One-bedroom average price per month: $1,837.92
Price per square foot: $3.12
A Dublin resident's perspective: After moving to more laid-back Dublin, Kayleigh Donahue realized that treating "work as a constant hustle" was an "American idea."
Alexandr Spatari/Getty Images
One-bedroom apartment size: 351.44 square feet
One-bedroom average price per month: $1,160.45
Price per square foot: $3.30
A Paris resident's perspective: Amanda Rollins left Massachusetts for Paris and embraced the slower pace of life in France — especially the longer lunch breaks and more frequent vacations.
Sylvain Sonnet / Getty Images
One-bedroom apartment size: 542.50 square feet
One-bedroom average price per month: $2,208.23
Price per square foot: $4.07
A London resident's perspective: Olamide Modupe, who moved from New York to London, found that it's harder to return items and that bartenders are stingier with their pours.
Still, she said, the experience has been worth the learning curve.
"I literally moved during the pandemic," Modupe said in one of her TikTok videos. "The time is right now. No matter where you are in life, just do it."
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