The cheapest (and most expensive) European cities for remote workers

Plenty of us have spent the commute dreaming of moving abroad for a while, but concerns over the cost of it all are likely a major factor in stopping us from taking the leap. Well, to anyone who’s still contemplating – listen up. 

Office electronic supply company Brother UK has done some research to find out where in Europe is the cheapest (and the most expensive) place to work remotely, and the results might surprise you. 

Brother UK analysed factors like Wi-Fi speed, the cost of an apartment, electricity, as well as the safety of a place, and gave each destination a remote worker score out of 100. 

And ranking as the most affordable place in Europe? It was Tuzla, in northeast Bosnia and Herzegovina. A one-bed city-centre apartment here costs only around £177.25 (€207) per month, and eating out is also super cheap – the average meal only costs £3.52 ($4.13). Sarajevo, the country’s charming capital city, also made the list claiming spot number 10. 

But it was Romania that dominated the list of cheapest cities, claiming five of the top 10 spots. Internet costs in Oradea, which came second place, are only £6.33 (€7.42), but cities like Craiova and Sibiu made the list thanks to their affordability. 

At the other end of the spectrum, one European country dominated the ‘most expensive’ list. Claiming the top spot was Zurich, Switzerland’s biggest city. 

It’s the second most expensive city for eating out, with a meal for one costing £22.29 (€26.12) on average (it was beaten only by Geneva, where a meal sets you back around £23.23 (€27.24)). But it’s the cost of a city-centre apartment that really packs a punch, with the average monthly price of a one-bed being around £2,197.73 (€2576.76) per month. Yikes. 

London came in second place, but Swiss cities claimed five of the top ten spots on the list of the most expensive places.  

These are the cheapest European cities for remote working

1. Tuzla, Bosnia and Herzegovina
2. Oradea, Romania
3. Craiova, Romania
4. Plovdiv, Bulgaria
5. Iasi, Romania
6. Timișoara, Romania
7. Sibiu, Romania
8. Skopje, North Macedonia
9. Nis, Serbia
10. Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina

And here are the most expensive European cities for remote working

1. Zurich, Switzerland
2. London, UK
3. Lausanne, Switzerland
4. Geneva, Switzerland
5. Dublin, Ireland
6. Basel, Switzerland
7. Bern, Switzerland
8. Bristol, UK
9. Trondheim, Norway
10. Munich, Germany

You can read more about Brother UK’s remote worker index on the website right here. 

Did you see that these are all the destinations you’ll need to pay extra to visit this year?

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