The present invention provides a surface property inspection method and apparatus for inspecting the surface properties of a test object subjected to two stages of shot peening. The present invention is an apparatus 1 includes an AC power supply 10, an AC bridge circuit 20, and an evaluation apparatus 30. The AC bridge circuit 20 is constituted by a variable resistor 21, a reference detector 22 and inspection detector 23. The inspection detector 23 includes a coil 23b wound so as to oppose the surface property inspection area of the test object M; an eddy current is excited in the test object M by supplying AC power to the coil 23b. A pass/fail judgment of the first shot peening can be made by inspecting the surface properties of a test object subjected to a second shot peening only after the second shot peening is completed.
