[dtegart]

In my experience, London is more expensive than just about anywhere in the world. If you need cheap, my recommendation is Berlin, housing and office costs are very low, and if you are coming from anywhere else in Europe almost everyone speaks English which is quite handy

[bhattisatish]

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 ...

[dtegart]

Rent is the main factor that makes London expensive, so if there is someway to get free housing, your other costs won't be too bad.