The average Cambridge home sold for £467,028 in May 2026, down 1.6% in a year while the county rose 2.1%. Prices by type, and why flats drag the average down.
Cambridge is one of the few places in England where house prices are currently going down. The average home in the city sold for £467,028 in May 2026, which is 1.6% less than a year earlier, at a time when Cambridgeshire as a whole was up 2.1% and England was up 2.3%.
Those are the UK House Price Index figures, built from completed HM Land Registry sales rather than asking prices, and they cover the Cambridge city local authority area, not the wider county. This page is a plain read of them: the headline number, what you actually pay by property type, why the city average is lower than the price of a terraced house, and how Cambridge compares to everywhere around it.
The headline figure
| Measure | May 2026 |
|---|---|
| Average price, all property types | £467,028 |
| Change over 12 months | −1.6% |
| Change over the month | +0.5% |
| First-time buyer average | £391,204 |
| Home mover average | £589,007 |
The monthly figure is worth noting alongside the annual one. Prices rose 0.5% in May, and the annual fall has been narrowing: it was 3.7% in the year to April and 3.1% in the year to March. So the direction of travel is a market that fell through 2025 and has begun to steady, not one still dropping hard.
The gap between the two buyer figures is the real cost of moving up in Cambridge. A first-time buyer paid an average of £391,204; somebody selling one home to buy another paid £589,007. That is roughly a £198,000 step, and it is why so many Cambridge families end up looking at South Cambridgeshire instead of a bigger house in the city.
Why the average is lower than a terraced house
This is the number that confuses people about Cambridge, so it is worth setting out plainly. The city average of £467,028 is lower than the average terraced house, which sold for £484,081. That looks impossible until you look at the property mix.
| Property type | Average price | Change over 12 months |
|---|---|---|
| Detached | £962,197 | −0.7% |
| Semi-detached | £592,414 | −0.2% |
| Terraced | £484,081 | −0.6% |
| Flat or maisonette | £295,016 | −4.0% |
Cambridge is a flat-heavy city. Between the student and postgraduate market, the apartment blocks around the station in CB1, and the new flats at Trumpington and along the river, enough sales are flats at £295,016 to pull the all-property average below the price of a two-up two-down on Romsey Terrace. If you are reading a headline Cambridge average and picturing a house, the number you want is £484,081 and upward, not £467,028.
Flats are also where the fall is. They are down 4.0% over the year while every kind of house is down less than 1%. Flat buyers are the most exposed to mortgage rates and the least able to wait, and in a city with a lot of buy-to-let and a lot of new-build supply, that shows up quickly in the sold-price data.
How Cambridge compares
Cambridge sits well above the county and the country, and it is moving in the opposite direction to both.
| Area | Average price | Change over 12 months |
|---|---|---|
| Cambridge city | £467,028 | −1.6% |
| South Cambridgeshire | £422,363 | +0.4% |
| Cambridgeshire | £334,500 | +2.1% |
| East of England | £338,224 | +2.3% |
| England | £292,095 | +2.3% |
Two things stand out. The first is the size of the Cambridge premium: the city average is about £132,500 above the Cambridgeshire average and roughly £175,000 above the England average. The second is that Cambridge is the outlier on direction. Every comparator here rose over the year and Cambridge fell.
The South Cambridgeshire comparison is the one most Cambridge buyers care about. The district average is £44,665 lower than the city, but the mix is different: South Cambs detached homes average £612,046 against £962,197 in the city, so the saving on a family house is much larger than the headline gap suggests. That is the trade being made every time somebody moves out to Cambourne, Sawston or Great Shelford and takes the train back in.
What it means for you
If you are buying, this is the most negotiable Cambridge market in several years, and flats are where the room is. A 4% fall on a £300,000 flat is £12,000 that was not on the table in 2024. Before you fix on an asking price, check what is coming through the planning register nearby and what the roads and parking are like on that side of the city.
If you are selling, the city is not the county. Pricing a Cambridge home off a Cambridgeshire-wide “prices are rising” headline will leave it sitting. Houses have held their value; flats have not, and a flat priced at 2024 money is unlikely to move.
If you are staying put, a 1.6% fall after the rises of 2021 and 2022 leaves the index at 94.4 against a 2023 base of 100. In cash terms your home is worth a little less than a year ago and a good deal more than five years ago.
Frequently asked questions
What is the average house price in Cambridge?
The average home in Cambridge city sold for £467,028 in May 2026 according to the UK House Price Index, which is built from completed HM Land Registry sales. That covers every property type across the city council area, flats included.
Are Cambridge house prices going up or down?
Down, but more slowly than they were. Prices fell 1.6% in the year to May 2026, after falls of 3.7% and 3.1% in the years to April and March. The month-on-month figure for May was +0.5%.
How much is a house rather than a flat in Cambridge?
A terraced house averaged £484,081, a semi-detached £592,414 and a detached house £962,197 in May 2026. The city-wide average of £467,028 is lower than all three because flats, at £295,016, make up a large share of Cambridge sales.
Is Cambridge more expensive than South Cambridgeshire?
Yes, and by more than the headline suggests. The city average is £467,028 against £422,363 for South Cambridgeshire, but for detached homes the gap is £962,197 against £612,046, so a family house is dramatically cheaper outside the city boundary.
Where can I check what a specific Cambridge house sold for?
Every completed sale in England and Wales is public. Search a street or an address free on the HM Land Registry Price Paid service.
Sources
- UK House Price Index, Cambridge (ONS / HM Land Registry) for the city average, property-type and buyer-type figures and the annual and monthly changes.
- Land Registry UK HPI open data, Cambridge, May 2026 for the underlying figures quoted here, and the equivalent South Cambridgeshire, Cambridgeshire, East of England and England records for the comparison table.
- HM Land Registry Price Paid search to check any individual address.
Figures are provisional and revised as more sales complete, and the index runs two to three months behind. Confirm the latest numbers against the linked ONS and Land Registry sources before making a decision. What is being built next is on Cambridge planning; what the commute costs is on Cambridge to London trains.
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