House asking prices in the South have reached more than double those in the North, creating a record divide, a report from Rightmove has found.
Southerners are typically putting their homes on the market for £336,743, compared with £164,347 in the Northern regions, sparking fears that a "two-tier twist" could be hampering more widespread growth in the market.
The £170,000 chasm is the largest in monetary terms since Rightmove's records began in 2002.
The monthly index revealed an overall 2.8% increase in asking prices, a jump of £6,533 from mid September to reach £239,672 in mid October.
But this rise was driven by the South, including London, the South East, the South West and East Anglia, which experienced a 4.7% upsurge overall.
Meanwhile, the North, which for the purposes of the survey included Wales, the West Midlands, East Midlands, Yorkshire and Humberside, the North West and the North of England, fell back by 0.7% in the space of a month, to levels first achieved more than six years ago in May 2005.
Properties in some of the South regions came onto the market at an all-time high. In London, the typical price was £450,210 - 2.6% higher than a previous record set in June.
Kensington and Chelsea was the best-performing area of the capital, with prices up 6.6% in a month to typically reach £1,917,895.
In the South East people were asking £317,055 for their properties - up 0.2% on the previous high achieved in May 2008.
Compared with the start of the credit crunch four years ago, prices of properties coming to market have risen by 5.4% in the South but tumbled by 9.6% in the North, Rightmove said.