On the latest official figures, Cambridge is the cheaper of the two cities to rent in and has the lower council tax, while the cost of buying is close enough that the lead has swapped back and forth over the past year. In August 2026 the average private rent was £1,805 a month in Cambridge and £1,963 in Oxford. A Band D home costs £2,467.02 in council tax in Cambridge for 2026 to 2027, against £2,675.54 in most of Oxford. In July 2026, the most recent month of HM Land Registry data, the average house price was £475,151 in Cambridge and £471,667 in Oxford.
Every figure below comes from an official source (HM Land Registry, the Office for National Statistics (ONS), the two city councils, Ofgem and GOV.UK). Each comparison uses the same measure and the same month for both cities, and we say which month it is. Where we could not find a reliable like-for-like source, we have left the subject out rather than guess.
All the figures refer to the two city council areas: Cambridge City Council and Oxford City Council. They do not cover the surrounding districts, such as South Cambridgeshire or the Vale of White Horse, where prices and council tax are different. If you are weighing up Cambridge itself, our Cambridge city area guide covers the different parts of the city.
Housing is where the largest measurable differences between the two cities show up.
The UK House Price Index (UK HPI) from HM Land Registry is based on completed sales registered with Land Registry, not asking prices. The figures for July 2026, published on 16 September 2026, are:
Cambridge was higher for every property type in July 2026. The gap ranged from £11,680 for flats to £31,624 for terraced houses. The overall gap was much smaller because the UK HPI does not get its all-property figure by averaging the four types. Each average starts from its own January 2015 price and is then carried forward using the index.
Over the year, prices in Cambridge were flat (0.0% change from July 2025), while Oxford fell by 2.3%. For context, the average in England was £293,479.
Three cautions apply. The most recent months are provisional and are revised as more sales are registered. HM Land Registry also notes that revisions can be larger for smaller areas because they have fewer sales. For local authorities such as Cambridge and Oxford, each monthly figure is also a three-month moving average, so the July figure is the average of the estimates for May, June and July. Because the two cities are so close, the next release could reverse the order. The August 2026 figures are due on 21 October 2026.
A second ONS measure, the median price of all homes sold in the year to September 2025, shows a wider gap: £495,000 in Cambridge against £450,000 in Oxford. The two measures are calculated differently. The median is the middle price of whatever happened to sell, while the UK HPI adjusts for the mix of homes sold. That is why the figures differ.
For a closer look at local trends, see our article on what's really happening to Cambridge prices.
The ONS Price Index of Private Rents (PIPR) covers both new and existing tenancies. It measures what tenants are paying across all private lets, not the asking rent on a newly advertised home, so asking rents on new listings may differ from these averages. The figures for August 2026, published on 16 September 2026, are:
Oxford is more expensive for every size of home. The average gap of £158 a month adds up to £1,896 a year. Rents are also rising more slowly in Cambridge: 1.8% in the year to August 2026, against 3.5% in Oxford and 4.0% across England.
PIPR is published as "official statistics in development", which means the ONS is still developing the method. It is the main official source that measures rents in both cities on the same basis. If you are looking to rent in Cambridge, our lettings team for tenants can tell you what is available now.
Council tax is one of the few everyday bills that can be compared exactly, because both councils publish their charges. These are the 2026 to 2027 figures from each council's website, and each figure is the full bill. Cambridge City Council's charge includes the county council, police and crime commissioner, fire authority and combined authority shares. Oxford City Council's includes Oxfordshire County Council and the Thames Valley Police and Crime Commissioner.
The Oxford figures are for the unparished areas, which cover most of the city. Homes in Oxford's four parishes (Blackbird Leys, Littlemore, Old Marston, and Risinghurst and Sandhills) pay slightly more. Cambridge is cheaper in every band, by £139.00 a year at Band A and up to £417.04 at Band H.
Bands are based on what a home would have sold for on 1 April 1991. Similar homes in the two cities will not necessarily be in the same band, so check the band of the specific property on GOV.UK before you compare.
Gas and electricity prices are not set city by city, but the Ofgem price cap does vary by region. Ofgem's postcode lookup puts Cambridge postcodes (such as CB1, CB2 and CB4) in the Eastern England region and Oxford postcodes (such as OX1, OX2 and OX4) in Southern England. The capped rates for customers paying by Direct Debit on a single-rate electricity tariff, from 1 October to 31 December 2026, are as follows. These include 5% VAT on gas, and there is no VAT on electricity from 1 October 2026 to 31 March 2027:
The differences are small. Cambridge's higher electricity standing charge adds about £15 over a year. Oxford's higher gas unit rate adds about £26 for every 10,000 kWh of gas used. For most households the two will roughly cancel out. Your own bill will depend mainly on how much energy the home uses, so check its Energy Performance Certificate before you buy or rent.
We have not compared food, local transport, eating out or nightlife. We have not found an official source that measures these costs for Cambridge and Oxford on the same basis. Crowd-sourced cost-of-living websites are not reliable enough to base a comparison on. We have also left out rail fares to London, as we could not confirm current fares from National Rail or the train companies. If you will be commuting, use the season ticket calculator on the National Rail website for your own journey.
The ONS Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE) gives median pay by local authority. The latest figures are provisional and cover the tax year ending 5 April 2025. For full-time employees who have been in the same job for more than a year, median gross annual pay was:
Pay in both cities is above the England figure. ASHE is a sample survey. The ONS publishes a quality measure for each estimate (the coefficient of variation) and says the true value is likely to lie within plus or minus twice that figure. For these two workplace figures, that is about 7% either way, which is more than the 5% gap between them. So the survey cannot say with confidence that one city pays more than the other.
The ONS affordability ratio divides the median house price by median full-time earnings for people who work in the area. A higher number means homes are less affordable for local workers. For 2025:
Lower-priced homes show the same pattern. The lower quartile ratio was 11.24 in Cambridge, 10.52 in Oxford and 6.98 in England. In both cities the typical home costs more than ten times typical local full-time pay, compared with under eight times across England. If you are buying for the first time, our guide to the Cambridge property ladder sets out the options.
Student finance does not differ between the two cities. For a new full-time student from England in the 2026 to 2027 academic year, the Tuition Fee Loan is up to £9,790. The maximum Maintenance Loan for students living away from their parents outside London is £10,830, and both Oxford and Cambridge fall in that category. For students, the rent figures above are the main official comparison between the two cities.
For renters, Cambridge is cheaper. Average rent was £1,896 a year lower than in Oxford in August 2026, and Band D council tax was £208.52 lower in 2026 to 2027. Energy rates are nearly identical, and pay is similar.
For buyers, there is little to choose between them on the latest index. Cambridge was slightly higher in July 2026, Oxford was higher for most of the previous year, and both are more than ten times local median earnings. A buyer in Cambridge will still pay less council tax each year than a buyer in a similar band in Oxford.
These are averages for whole cities. Prices vary a great deal between streets and types of home within each one. If you are thinking of moving from a property you own, a free valuation of your current home will show you how your budget compares with prices here. If you are comparing the two cities as an investor rather than a resident, see how Cambridge compares to Oxford and London for property investment.
This article is general information based on official statistics, not financial advice. Speak to a mortgage adviser or financial adviser about what you can afford.
They are very close. In July 2026 the UK HPI average was £475,151 in Cambridge and £471,667 in Oxford, but Oxford was higher in 10 of the 13 months from July 2025 to July 2026. In July 2026, Cambridge was higher for every property type.
Cambridge. The ONS average private rent in August 2026 was £1,805 a month in Cambridge and £1,963 in Oxford, and Oxford was dearer for every size of home.
Oxford. For 2026 to 2027, Band D is £2,675.54 in Oxford's unparished areas and £2,467.02 in Cambridge, and Oxford is higher in every band.
Pay is similar. Median full-time pay for people working in Cambridge was £45,762 in 2025, against £43,502 in Oxford, but the gap is within the survey's margin of error.
Oxford, slightly. The ONS ratio of median house price to median workplace earnings for 2025 was 10.34 in Oxford and 10.82 in Cambridge, against 7.63 for England.
