House prices rose by just 0.1% in October and by 0.3% in November, the Land Registry and Halifax have respectively reported.

According to the Land Registry, the average house price in England and Wales in October stood at £177,377 – still below the peak of £181,269 in November 2007, but up 7.7% on October last year.

The Halifax gives a ‘seasonally adjusted’ average house price of £189,388 for November, barely up from October’s £189,333.

The lender puts annual house price inflation at 8.5% – which pales into insignificance beside reports that a studio flat at Battersea Power Station that sold off-plan for£1m is coming back to the market six months later for £1.5m.

The property is still unbuilt – indeed, work is a long way off even starting – and will not be completed until 2018.

The estate agent expecting to get the instruction is Henry Winter, who says the vendor is someone they met at a property conference in Dubai.

Agents seem agreed that Battersea Power Station (pictured) is its own market place.

Otherwise, we’d say that the seller might be a tad optimistic at the thought of a £500,000 uplift within six months. Knight Frank has just reported that London prices have fallen– only by 0.2%, but it is the first monthly decrease in over three years, and discounting that minor dip, marks the end of a five-year run of growth in which London house prices shot up 73%.

* Better late than never? Tonight, Channel 4 is due to screen The British Property Boom at 8pm.

According to the blurb, house prices in towns and cities are reaching record heights. It asks whether London will soon be off-limits to all but the very rich and to foreign investors, and investigates the consequences for buyers and sellers across the country.