14/09/2026
Hastings House Prices Are Down 4.6% – Should Homeowners Be Worried?
If you've seen the latest house-price figures for Hastings, the headline doesn't make particularly comfortable reading.
According to the latest UK House Price Index, the average property price in Hastings stood at **£237,000 in June 2026 – 4.6% lower than a year earlier**.
That compares with an average of £249,000 in June 2025.
Meanwhile, across the South East as a whole, average prices were virtually unchanged at around £380,000.
So, is the Hastings property market in trouble?
**I don't think that's the right conclusion at all. But I do think the market has changed – and sellers need to recognise it.**
What's actually happening to Hastings property prices?
The headline 4.6% fall doesn't tell the whole story.
The latest figures show average Hastings values of approximately:
Detached homes – £474,000
Semi-detached homes – £324,000
Terraced homes – £254,000
lats and maisonettes – £141,000
Over the year, flats saw the largest recorded fall, at 6.4%, while both terraced and semi-detached properties were down approximately 3.4%
First-time buyers paid an average of £201,000, compared with £211,000 a year earlier.
There is therefore no point pretending prices haven't softened. They have.
But there's an equally important point.
There isn't really one “Hastings property market”.
Your postcode – and sometimes your street – matters
Anyone who works in the Hastings and St Leonards market knows how dramatically values can change over surprisingly short distances.
A Victorian house in central St Leonards is a very different proposition from a seafront flat.
A family home around St Helens has a different buyer pool again.
Move into the Old Town, West Hill, Silverhill, Clive Vale or further west towards Burton St Leonards and you're dealing with different property styles, price points and buyers.
Even two apparently similar houses on neighbouring roads can achieve substantially different prices because of condition, outlook, parking, outside space or simply how well they are presented.
That's why I'd be very cautious about telling an individual homeowner that their property has “fallen by 4.6%”.
It may have.
It may have fallen considerably less.
In some particularly desirable pockets or for scarce types of property, its value may have held up extremely well.
A borough-wide average simply can't answer that question.
The bigger issue in 2026 is pricing
What has undoubtedly changed is buyer behaviour.
Buyers have access to more information than ever before. They can see previous sale prices, reductions, how long properties have been advertised and what competing homes are available almost instantly.
And with mortgage costs considerably higher than during the ultra-low-interest-rate years, buyers are understandably more price-conscious.
That creates a problem with the traditional estate-agency tactic of:
"Let's try it a bit higher and see what happens.”
In a rapidly rising market, you could sometimes get away with it.
In the current market, it can be expensive.
A property launches.
The first couple of weeks – when it should attract the greatest attention – produce limited interest.
Four or six weeks later the price is reduced.
Eventually it reaches the level at which it probably should have launched.
But by then buyers have already seen it.
Instead of asking:
“How quickly do I need to view this?”
they start asking:
“Why hasn't it sold?”
Those are two very different conversations.
Buyers haven't disappeared
It's also important not to confuse a more difficult market with there being no market.
Homes are still selling.
The question is which homes are selling, at what price and how quickly?
Current asking-price data shows a substantial amount of property available in Hastings, with the typical asking price around £290,000–£295,000.
That choice gives buyers negotiating power.
It means sellers increasingly have to compete not just on price, but on presentation, photography, marketing and the overall buying proposition.
For a genuinely good property priced correctly, that can actually create an opportunity.
While an overpriced competitor sits online for months, the correctly positioned property can stand out.
Hastings still has something much of the South East doesn't – relative affordability
There's another side to the £237,000 average price which shouldn't be ignored.
The equivalent average across the South East is around **£380,000**.
That is a difference of more than £140,000
For buyers looking along the Sussex coast – particularly those coming from Brighton, London and more expensive parts of the South East – Hastings can still offer a considerable amount of property for the money.
That underlying affordability has been one of the town's attractions for years, and it hasn't suddenly disappeared because prices have had a softer twelve months.
And Hastings itself is changing
There are also longer-term factors worth watching.
Hastings Borough Council's new Local Plan is progressing towards its next stage and will establish the development framework for the borough through to 2041
That includes housing, employment, infrastructure and regeneration as well as some potentially significant development sites.
New housing is already arriving.
At Levett View, for example, the first residents have begun moving into a development which will ultimately provide 140 homes, including 86 affordable or social-rented properties.
Whatever your views about individual developments and if they are affordable or not.... – and planning in Hastings will always provoke plenty of debate – the town isn't standing still.
Over the next decade, decisions being made now about housing, infrastructure and regeneration will have a significant influence on different parts of the local property market.
So should Hastings homeowners be worried about the 4.6% fall?
No – but I wouldn't ignore it either.
This isn't the market of a few years ago where putting almost any property online could generate a queue of buyers.
For somebody considering selling in 2026, three things have become increasingly important:
Price accurately. Present properly. Launch strongly.
And perhaps most importantly, don't base a decision about a particular property on a borough-wide average.
The official figures themselves carry an important warning: local house-price statistics are based on considerably fewer transactions than national figures, making short-term movements more volatile. The latest figures are also provisional and can subsequently be revised.
For me, that's exactly why valuation should never simply involve putting a postcode into an automated calculator.
I want to know what has actually sold nearby.
I want to know the size and condition of those properties.
I want to know which competing homes are currently available.
And I want to understand why one property achieved £350,000 while something apparently similar achieved £325,000.
That's where the real Hastings property market is found – not in a single headline percentage.**
about moving?
If you're considering selling in Hastings or St Leonards, I'm happy to provide a **free Pre-Market Appraisal and AI Home Report**.
There's no obligation to put your property on the market.
The idea is simply to give you a realistic picture of where your home sits in today's market, using recent comparable sales, current competition and my own assessment of the property – so you can make an informed decision about what to do next.
**Robin Smith**
**eXp – Hastings & St Leonards**
