Chris Gibson Franchise Director tries to explain this philosophy in simple terms. "With talk of house prices slowing and possibly even dropping and interest rates rising you would think that this would cause problems in the lettings market, but you couldn't be further from the truth.

As prices potentially stall, the panic buying that every region has seen over the last few years will also stall and prices will hold. Thereafter as couples and families trying to get onto the property ladder consider where to move to, the unsure market will prompt many into renting a house, flat or mansion just to see what will happen, and that's good news for us.

Professional landlords have a dilemma, to sell portfolios and cash in on the equity gained or to hold onto their investments and get regular return in a growing market, many are holding on to portfolios avoiding panic knee jerk reactions.

Either way this will only help professionally run letting and property management companies such as Castle Estates who will not suffer the drop in sales commissions that some estate agents may be facing.

Looking ahead the result could be fewer properties available married with an increase in tenants waiting to see what happens; net result will be an increase in demand and growth in this type of business which is great news for our franchisees.

Linked to this anticipated growth, the signs are good for the corporate department of Castle Estates that deals with many high street names such as Barclays, HSBC, Thresher, and Boots managing their portfolio of residential properties situated above retail premises across the UK. Here the company owned offices and franchised offices work together to provide a quality service for these corporate clients whilst managing local and overseas landlord's properties.

So with a growing market and exiting changes in legislation that will further boost the market in 2005, the residential letting and property market is looking very rosy, and Castle Estates are positioned exceptionally well to cater for this demand.

The network is expected to grow by 50% over the next two years with management franchisees sought to develop retail and home based territories currently available."