Visible light communication (VLC) system based on orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) is promising for its ability to link a huge number of devices with high reliability and low latency. However, OFDM‐based VLC systems are very sensitive to the symbol timing offsets. Thus, synchronisation algorithm is very important for OFDM‐based VLC system. In this study, the authors first propose zero correlation code pair (ZCC pair) and investigate the periodical impulse‐shaped correlation property of ZCC pair. Then the authors propose a novel timing offset estimation algorithm based on ZCC pair. The preamble is processed via peak‐to‐average power ratio (PAPR) reduction algorithms to overcome the PAPR problem in VLC systems. This algorithm achieves high accuracy and has low synchronisation error probability. The effectiveness of the authors’ proposed algorithm has been demonstrated using computer simulation under non‐light‐of‐sight VLC and Gaussian channels. The results show that the authors’ algorithm outperforms the Schmidl Cox's and Park's algorithms in terms of synchronisation error probability and mean square error of timing error.