Where to build a Finance team in Europe: rethink the costs

Finance EMEABy Stefan Pinckney · 25 October 2026 · 4 min read

For Finance, salaries differ far more between European cities than for IT. Cost assumptions don't always hold, and offices and notice periods also play a part.

Charles Bridge and the Old Town Bridge Tower across the Vltava river in Prague.

Finance is usually one of the first functions companies establish when setting up a new centre, and the location shortlist tends to look the same as for IT, with Poland, Czechia, Portugal and Romania coming up again and again. The common assumptions are that Poland is cheaper than Western Europe and Portugal is even cheaper. For Finance, that picture is only partly true.

Why these countries keep coming up

Finance is a big part of the service-centre sector in all four countries. In Poland, Warsaw alone has about 111,200 business services jobs, and in Katowice, finance and accounting and HR are the two most common areas being delivered. (ABSL, 2025–2026)

Czech centres deliver more finance and accounting than any other functional area, with Prague as a top location. (ABSL Czech Republic, 2026)

Portugal’s sector is driven largely by finance and accounting, with most centres in Lisbon and Porto. (AICEP Portugal Global and IDC, 2025)

Romania has more than 280,000 business services professionals, with Bucharest as the largest hub, and 69% of the centres surveyed deliver finance and accounting. (ABSL Romania, 2025)

Salaries: a much wider spread than for IT

For IT, the Polish cities and Prague sit within a few percent of each other in published salary guides. For Finance, the spread is much wider. Of the nine European cities we track, Warsaw comes out highest, with Lisbon, Porto and Bucharest sitting roughly 40% below it.

Poland is not the cheap option here. Kraków, Wrocław and Katowice run about 6–11% below Warsaw, but all four Polish cities sit above Barcelona, and well above Prague. If you assumed Poland would be the budget choice for Finance, the numbers say otherwise.

Lisbon and Porto are almost level on salary. Bucharest is in the same range, although its figures come from national rather than city-level salary guides. Salary guides also differ in roles, seniority and timing, so treat these as ranges rather than exact gaps. If you are comparing beyond Europe, I looked at that in India or Europe: where should your next team be?

Offices: plenty of choice in some cities, a challenge in others

Office rent is a small share of the total cost, but market conditions differ a lot. In Kraków, Wrocław and Katowice, around a fifth of office space is vacant and rents run at roughly half of central Warsaw. Here you have choice and room to negotiate.

Prague and Lisbon are the opposite. Vacancy is around 6–7%, the lowest of the nine, and Lisbon has the highest prime rents. As I wrote about IT teams, in Lisbon you need to look for space early and be ready to commit. Porto's prime rents are about a third below Lisbon's.

The figures aren't fully like-for-like, as some are prime city-centre rents and others city-wide ranges, but the pattern is clear.

Talent: solid everywhere, so other things decide

For IT, a few cities clearly stand out on talent depth. For Finance, the nine European cities are much more even. All of them have solid Finance talent pools and established employers. That makes the choice less about whether you can find people, and more about cost, speed and how the team will work.

Competition is the other side of it. In the established hubs, you are hiring people who already work for well-known companies, often in large centres with clear career paths. If your company isn’t a known name in that city, you need a stronger offer to compete: pay benchmarked against those employers, flexible working, a good office and a clear picture of the role and where it can lead. In a smaller or less crowded city, you stand out more easily.

English is strong in all nine cities, with Porto and Lisbon scoring highest in EF's 2025 city rankings, but Finance work often needs more than English. If the team handles invoices or queries for German, French or Nordic entities, you need those languages too, and that can narrow the shortlist quickly.

Notice periods affect how fast you can build

Notice periods are easy to overlook. In the sources we track, standard notice periods are around three months in Poland, two months in Czechia and Portugal, and about four weeks in Romania. They vary by tenure and contract, but a candidate who accepts your offer in Poland may not start for a quarter. That matters when you're moving work on a fixed timeline.

Stability and the cheapest options

Prague scores highest on stability of the nine cities. Bucharest combines low salaries with the fastest forecast pay growth in our data and higher staff turnover in the surveys we track, so part of the cost advantage narrows over time. Neither is a reason to rule a city in or out, but both belong in the business case.

So which one?

If cost matters most, Portugal and Romania are hard to beat for Finance, with Lisbon and Porto offering the more stable environment. If you want a large, established business-services market and can accept higher salaries, Poland makes sense, and the regional cities save on office costs. Prague is a strong middle option, with moderate salaries and high stability, but a tight office market.

That's what PlaceKernel's reports work out: which city fits your Finance team, based on what you're building and what matters most to you, with the sources behind every key figure.

Find the right location for your team →

Sources

Share on LinkedIn