Seismic shift: Hastings property prices overtake Napier for first time in 10 years

The balance of power in the Hawke's Bay property market has officially shifted.

After a 10-year run at the top, Napier's median property price has been overtaken by Hastings, new OneRoof property statistics show.

The statistics, produced by Valocity, show Hastings' median property price cracked the half-million mark in September and now sits at $506,000.

Napier's median price, in contrast, sits at $490,000.

Tremains Hawke's Bay sales manager Stuart Christensen said the gap had been firmly in Napier's favour for quite some time, driven by the fact there were so few homes in the city for first-home buyers.

But it had shifted back the other way in recent years, he said.

OneRoof figures show that both cities are still experiencing strong year-on-year increases in property prices. In the year to September, Napier grew 4 per cent and Hastings soared 12.4 per cent.

Stuart Christensen said the lack of first-home buying opportunities in Napier led to the shift between the twin cities. Photo / Supplied

"The thing that has driven the price is the competition between Napier and Hastings," Christensen said.

"Looking back over the past decade Hastings has always been behind Napier when it comes to the property prices but there has been that shift over the past month or so where they have now overtaken."

Sales and leasing director of Colliers in Hawke's Bay Simon Tremain said he was surprised by the numbers, but said the two markets were now closer than ever.

"Hastings has really caught up of late because it is popular for first-home buyers and investors because of the more options in the $400,000-$450,000 mark," Tremain said.

"The market is still very buoyant and the median prices will keep going up and there isn't a hell of a lot of price difference these days between Napier and Hastings."

Christensen also pointed out that the cities' close proximity gives people more of an option.

"With the two cities so close people are happy to commute between the two because it's just a matter of a 20-minute drive on the expressway and we're seeing people doing this both ways," he said.

"This just leads to more interest in both cities from people and continues that growing competition between the two."

But the main thing that is causing so much interest in Hawke's Bay's market and fuelling price increases is the building demand.

"The properties available also come in all price ranges and we're receiving multiple offers on each of them and that is just leading to the supply and demand and continuing to drive the prices up," Christensen said.

"So as long as the buying interest stays up the prices will stay up as well."