diff --git a/ci/scripts/python_build.sh b/ci/scripts/python_build.sh
index f8c1af3982d..50fb37db1f1 100755
--- a/ci/scripts/python_build.sh
+++ b/ci/scripts/python_build.sh
@@ -89,7 +89,7 @@ cp -aL "${source_dir}" "${python_build_dir}"
 pushd "${python_build_dir}"
 # - Cannot use build isolation as we want to use specific dependency versions
 #   (e.g. Numpy, Pandas) on some CI jobs.
-${PYTHON:-python} -m pip install --no-deps --no-build-isolation -vv -C cmake.build-type="${CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE:-Debug}" .
+time ${PYTHON:-python} -m pip install --no-deps --no-build-isolation -vv -C cmake.build-type="${CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE:-Debug}" .
 popd
 
 if [ "${BUILD_DOCS_PYTHON}" == "ON" ]; then
diff --git a/python/CMakeLists.txt b/python/CMakeLists.txt
index 4bea6e7d8d4..8eae91e0ed1 100644
--- a/python/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/python/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -130,11 +130,18 @@ if(CCACHE_FOUND
    AND NOT CMAKE_C_COMPILER_LAUNCHER
    AND NOT CMAKE_CXX_COMPILER_LAUNCHER)
   message(STATUS "Using ccache: ${CCACHE_FOUND}")
-  set(CMAKE_C_COMPILER_LAUNCHER ${CCACHE_FOUND})
-  set(CMAKE_CXX_COMPILER_LAUNCHER ${CCACHE_FOUND})
-  # ARROW-3985: let ccache preserve C++ comments, because some of them may be
-  # meaningful to the compiler
-  set(ENV{CCACHE_COMMENTS} "1")
+  # 1. Let ccache preserve C++ comments, because some of them may be
+  #    meaningful to the compiler (ARROW-3985)
+  # 2. Set ccache base_dir to the build output directory as it is typically
+  #    a temporary directory, and would otherwise fail caching because of
+  #    using different paths everytime.
+  # Also, we use `cmake -E env` to set environment variables as the
+  # `ccache option=value ...` form of passing configuration options
+  # is not supported by ccache < 4.8.
+  set(ccache_command ${CMAKE_COMMAND} -E env CCACHE_COMMENTS=1
+                     CCACHE_BASEDIR=${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR} -- ${CCACHE_FOUND})
+  set(CMAKE_C_COMPILER_LAUNCHER ${ccache_command})
+  set(CMAKE_CXX_COMPILER_LAUNCHER ${ccache_command})
 endif()
 
 #