Eight local authorities across Lincolnshire recorded 2024 median prices for a new-build house — detached, semi-detached or terraced — below £310,000, every one of them cheaper than England's £351,500 new-build house median. Six of the eight rank among the 20 cheapest local authorities in the country for this measure. The figures come from HM Land Registry's Price Paid Data, filtered to category-A sales of new-build detached, semi-detached and terraced homes in 2024 (registration lags mean 2025's new-build figures are still incomplete, so 2024 is the most reliable recent year).
North Lincolnshire is the cheapest of the group and the second-cheapest local authority in England on this measure, behind only Liverpool. North Lincolnshire and North East Lincolnshire have been separate unitary authorities since 1996, but both sit inside the historic county boundary and share its building pattern, so this table treats all eight as one Lincolnshire cluster. Lincoln itself is excluded — only six new-build house sales were recorded in the city in 2024, too thin a sample to rank reliably.
The Lincolnshire new-build ladder, 2024
| Local authority | Median new-build house price | New-build house sales (2024) | Band D council tax, 2026-27 |
|---|---|---|---|
| North Lincolnshire | £209,950 | 192 | £2,348.46 |
| Boston | £226,225 | 120 | £2,308.73 |
| East Lindsey | £235,995 | 303 | £2,275.88 |
| North Kesteven | £244,998 | 300 | £2,337.81 |
| North East Lincolnshire | £255,000 | 253 | £2,483.85 |
| South Holland | £255,000 | 288 | £2,278.20 |
| West Lindsey | £270,000 | 305 | £2,354.25 |
| South Kesteven | £309,995 | 200 | £2,260.00 |
| England (all new-build houses) | £351,500 | 55,965 | £2,410.97 (national mean) |
Source: HM Land Registry Price Paid Data, category-A sales, detached/semi-detached/terraced, new-build flag, 2024. Council tax from gov.uk's 2026-27 council tax levels release. Fetched 8 September 2026.
Between them, the eight districts recorded 1,961 new-build house sales in 2024 — a meaningful slice of England's 55,965 new-build house transactions that year, from a county better known nationally for agriculture than housebuilding.
A house market, not a flat-inflated statistic
Homecost's earlier England-wide ranking of cheapest new-build house prices found two distinct routes to a low median: flat-led city centres, where a large share of small flats pulls the overall figure down even though houses cost more, and house-led estate towns, where the low median reflects the actual cost of a house. Lincolnshire is squarely the second kind. Across the eight districts, detached houses made up 54.9% of new-build house sales in 2024 (1,076 of 1,961), with semi-detached (34.9%) and terraced (10.2%) filling the rest. North Kesteven is the one exception, where semi-detached sales (144) narrowly outnumbered detached (115) — still a house-led market, just a different mix.
That matters for how to read the price table. A £209,950 median in North Lincolnshire isn't a statistical trick caused by cheap flats dragging down the average — it's the median price of an actual new-build house, more often detached than not. Cheap land and estate-scale building on the edges of market towns, rather than flat conversions or high-density infill, is doing the work here.
Cheap to buy usually means cheap to run, too
Homecost's wider council tax analysis has repeatedly found that England's cheapest places to buy are not always the cheapest to live in — some low-price local authorities offset thin housing revenue with high Band D bills. Lincolnshire mostly breaks that pattern. Seven of the eight districts have a 2026-27 Band D bill below the £2,410.97 national mean. The exception is North East Lincolnshire, at £2,483.85 — still mid-table on price but the only one of the eight above the national average on tax.
What stamp duty looks like on these prices
All but one of the eight medians sit below England's £300,000 first-time buyer relief threshold, so a first-time buyer purchasing the typical new-build house in North Lincolnshire, Boston, East Lindsey, North Kesteven, North East Lincolnshire or South Holland would pay no Stamp Duty Land Tax at all. Only South Kesteven's £309,995 median clears the threshold, and only just — a first-time buyer there would pay £499.75.
| Local authority | Median price | SDLT, home mover | SDLT, first-time buyer |
|---|---|---|---|
| North Lincolnshire | £209,950 | £1,699.00 | £0 |
| Boston | £226,225 | £2,024.50 | £0 |
| East Lindsey | £235,995 | £2,219.90 | £0 |
| North Kesteven | £244,998 | £2,399.96 | £0 |
| North East Lincolnshire | £255,000 | £2,750.00 | £0 |
| South Holland | £255,000 | £2,750.00 | £0 |
| West Lindsey | £270,000 | £3,500.00 | £0 |
| South Kesteven | £309,995 | £5,499.75 | £499.75 |
| England (new-build house median) | £351,500 | £7,575.00 | £2,575.00 |
Figures calculated via gov.uk's Stamp Duty Land Tax residential rates, 2026 thresholds, and cross-checked against Homecost's stamp duty calculator. This is general information, not advice — eligibility for first-time buyer relief depends on individual circumstances, and a conveyancer confirms it on completion.
What it costs each month
Adding an illustrative mortgage payment — 75% loan-to-value, 25-year term, at the Bank of England's quoted five-year fixed rate for that loan-to-value band (4.32%, April 2026) — to a twelfth of the Band D council tax bill gives a rough all-in monthly figure. Actual rates depend on the lender, deposit and the buyer's credit profile, so treat this as illustrative, not a quote.
| Local authority | Median price | Illustrative mortgage/month | Council tax/month | All-in/month |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| North Lincolnshire | £209,950 | £859 | £196 | £1,055 |
| Boston | £226,225 | £926 | £192 | £1,118 |
| East Lindsey | £235,995 | £966 | £190 | £1,155 |
| North Kesteven | £244,998 | £1,003 | £195 | £1,197 |
| North East Lincolnshire | £255,000 | £1,044 | £207 | £1,251 |
| South Holland | £255,000 | £1,044 | £190 | £1,233 |
| West Lindsey | £270,000 | £1,105 | £196 | £1,301 |
| South Kesteven | £309,995 | £1,269 | £188 | £1,457 |
| England (new-build house median) | £351,500 | £1,439 | £201 | £1,639 |
Even South Kesteven, the priciest of the eight, comes in around £180 a month below the national new-build house figure once mortgage and council tax are combined.
Try it on your own postcode
These are county and district-wide medians, not a valuation of any individual home — the price you'd pay depends on the specific property, its condition and its exact location within each district. To see the full record for a street in the area, Homecost's postcode tool pulls together Land Registry sale history, EPC data and a live true-cost breakdown for any UK postcode — Grantham's NG31, in South Kesteven, is a useful place to start given it tops this table.
For the England-wide version of this ranking, including where the cheapest single local authority sits, see Homecost's full table of the cheapest places to buy a new-build house. For the cheapest individual postcode areas regardless of build type, see the cheapest postcode areas to buy in the UK. And for the places where a low purchase price doesn't translate into a low council tax bill — the opposite of most of Lincolnshire — see England's cheap-to-buy, dear-to-run authorities. More regional price data is available on the Homecost regional prices blog.
This is general information, not financial or legal advice. Speak to a qualified adviser before acting on anything here.