South Cambridgeshire house prices: the £422,363 average

Ask what a house costs in South Cambridgeshire and you will get a different answer in every village. The district is a ring of separate places around Cambridge, from new-build Cambourne to old-money Great Shelford, and the gap between them is now more than half a million pounds. This page sets out the official sold-price figures for the district, what each property type and each village actually costs, and how the area compares with Cambridge itself, all from HM Land Registry completed sales rather than asking prices.

The headline figure

The average home in South Cambridgeshire sold for £422,363 in May 2026, according to the official UK House Price Index, which is built from completed Land Registry sales. That is up just 0.4% on a year earlier, so in cash terms the market has spent the past year standing still.

Two things stand out in the same data. First, the district is now more affordable than Cambridge city, where the average is £467,028, but Cambridge prices fell 1.6% over the year while South Cambs held level, so the gap is closing. Second, the district sits roughly £85,000 above the East of England average and £130,000 above the England average, which is the price of being within reach of Cambridge’s jobs and stations.

What each property type costs

The district average hides a wide spread by property type. These are the May 2026 figures from the UK House Price Index:

• Detached houses: £612,046 (up 0.4% on the year). The village family home that defines the district.
• Semi-detached houses: £387,988 (up 1.3%, the strongest of any type).
• Terraced houses: £315,263 (up 0.6%).
• Flats and maisonettes: £191,947 (down 3.4%, the only falling category).

The same dataset splits buyers too: a first-time buyer paid an average of £335,504, while a home mover trading up paid £499,075. The step from a first terrace to a village family house is, in effect, a £160,000 jump.

Village by village: from £381k to £891k

Because the district has no single town, village-level sold prices tell you more than the district average. These are Rightmove’s averages of actual sales over the twelve months to August 2026. They are raw averages of a small number of sales, so a few large detached sales can swing a village’s figure; treat them as a guide to the pecking order rather than precise valuations.

• Great Shelford, £890,632, is the clear outlier: detached homes averaged £1,552,753 over the year, and the village average jumped 26% on the back of those big sales. It is the closest thing the district has to a millionaire’s row.
• Histon (£520,194) is the priciest of the northern villages, helped by the busway and the science parks on its doorstep.
• The middle of the table, Melbourn, Comberton, Sawston, Linton and Waterbeach, all cluster between about £436,000 and £470,000.
• Cambourne, £380,569, is the cheapest of the villages checked and the only one down meaningfully on the year (5%). As a new town of modern estates it has the youngest housing stock in the district, and it is where first-time buyers get the most house for the money.

How South Cambs compares

The pattern is unusual: the cheaper the area, the faster it grew over the past year. England and the East of England rose 2.3%, the county 2.1%, South Cambs barely moved and Cambridge city fell. After the post-2020 surge, the premium end around Cambridge is treading water while cheaper markets catch up.

What it means for you

If you are selling, a flat market rewards realistic pricing from day one, and the village-level figures above matter more than the district average when you set it. If you are buying, the useful arbitrage is between villages: the same budget that buys a terrace in Great Shelford buys a detached house in Cambourne, and both ends of the district have a station or busway link to Cambridge and London. And if you are weighing a new-build on one of the district’s big sites, from Northstowe to Waterbeach, the pipeline of thousands of new homes in the Local Plan is part of why price growth here is slower than the national average.

Frequently asked questions

What is the average house price in South Cambridgeshire?

The average home in the district sold for £422,363 in May 2026, according to the UK House Price Index built from HM Land Registry completed sales. Individual villages range from about £381,000 (Cambourne) to £891,000 (Great Shelford).

Are South Cambridgeshire house prices rising or falling?

Broadly flat: up 0.4% in the year to May 2026. Semi-detached homes rose most (1.3%), while flats fell 3.4%. Cambridge city prices fell 1.6% over the same year.

Which is the most expensive village in South Cambridgeshire?

Of the villages with enough sales to measure, Great Shelford leads by a wide margin at an average of £890,632 over the year to August 2026, with detached homes there averaging more than £1.5 million.

Where is the cheapest place to buy in the district?

Cambourne, at an average of £380,569. Its modern estates give it the youngest and most uniform housing stock in the district, and prices there eased 5% over the past year.

Is South Cambridgeshire cheaper than Cambridge?

Yes. The district average of £422,363 is about £45,000 below Cambridge city’s £467,028, though well above the county, regional and national averages.

Where can I check what a specific house sold for?

Every completed sale in England and Wales is public. Search a street or address free on the HM Land Registry Price Paid service, or browse the same data on Rightmove and Zoopla.

Sources

• UK House Price Index, South Cambridgeshire (ONS / HM Land Registry) for the district average, property-type, buyer-type and comparison figures, May 2026.
• Rightmove sold prices for the village-level averages (Great Shelford, Histon, Melbourn, Comberton, Sawston, Linton, Waterbeach, Cambourne pages), year to August 2026.
• HM Land Registry Price Paid search to look up any individual address.

UK HPI figures are provisional and revised as more sales complete. Checked August 2026; always confirm the latest month against the linked sources.