Try living in Tokyo and Scandinavian cities :) I am currently living in Finland and just finished a small tour of the Scandinavian region. The costs here compared to London are not comparable. Other then rent, everything else is way out expensive compared to London. But if you are ready to travel a bit daily you can offset that rent cost. But then you cannot beat the rest of environment. For e.g. number of fellow hackers / programmers, etc ...