The three recorded lines for Berlin
Berlin is the cheapest big-city landing in this trio, and it still is not cheap, because Germany front-loads the deposit. The recorded figures in the First-Month Landing Cash Planner are averages in US dollars: a shared room rents for $680 a month, a studio for $1,459, and utilities run $387 a month, the highest utilities line of the three cities in this series, which is what a Berlin winter does to a budget. Rent alone would make Berlin a bargain. The deposit is the story.
The Kaution: up to three months, payable in three parts
German law lets a landlord take a Kaution of up to three months' cold rent, and most take it. On the recorded shared-room rent that is $2,040 before you have spent a night in the room; on a studio, $4,377. One mercy is built into the same law: the Kaution may be paid in three monthly installments, which turns a wall into a staircase, though many landlords still ask upfront and installment payment is worth raising before you sign. Add the first month itself and utilities and the shared-room landing totals $3,107; the studio landing totals $6,223.
What the total does not include, honestly
The planner records rent, deposit and utilities for all 200 of its cities; groceries, transit and insurance are lines you enter yourself, because they vary too much by student to average honestly. So $3,107 is the housing landing, not the whole first month: add your own food, a transit pass and your semester contribution. Even so, housing is the part that cannot be negotiated down after arrival, which is why this series counts it separately.
Run your own Berlin numbers
The Landing Cash Planner lets you set the deposit months yourself, so you can price the installment case ($680 of Kaution in month one) against the upfront case before you commit. The same method counts Dublin on this blog, and the housing comparison guide explains how these city figures were recorded.