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I've just gone through the process of helping a friend rent a house in Ronda and I thought I'd share my findings for any of my readers who are thinking of making their way down to Ronda.

The first thing to mention is the range of properties available to rent, from pisos (apartments or flats), to modern town houses, older style homes, villas, and fincas.

Let's start with the basics, what you're going to be up for when you sign a contract on a rental property in Ronda. Remember that all rent in Ronda is payable in Euros and are due monthly, usually at the beginning of the month for the month ahead, yes, you pay in advance.

The first thing you're going to be asked for is a bond or deposit that is going to be a full month's rent and is kept by the landlord in case of damage. You'll also be asked to pay your first month's rent when you sign the lease.

If you're dealing with an agent you'll also have to pay either half or a full month's rent directly to the agent as a handling fee. Most agents also get a fee from the owner, and it might seem like they're getting a lot for nothing so make use of your agent.

Digressing slightly, the agent will in most cases be happy to work with you to setup bank accounts, start telephone or power services, help you with removals, even introduce you to business people they know who may be looking for partners.

It sounds unlikely I know, but the reality is that property agents in Spain, and definitely in Ronda tend to be quite well connected and since you're paying them a finders fee for very little work make them earn that fee.

Right now, the property market in Spain is depressed, there is a surplus of property on the market but in the rental market things are not quite so depressed although a positive effect of the recession is that rental prices have dropped in many cases.

It is currently possible to find a decent fully furnished house or piso in a nice neighborhood of Ronda for €350 per month, which 18 months ago might have been unheard of, well they were available in the grotty areas but who wanted to live there.

I've also seen 3 and 4 bedroom fincas near Arriate, a small town only 2 minutes drive from Ronda, that were being offered at €1,000 12 months ago and can now be rented for €750-€900.

In the more desirable areas of Ronda, near to Alameda Park, or down in Barrio San Francisco properties that were being offered at €600-€700 are now priced at €450-€550.

Renting a house in Ronda has never been this cheap, and I recommend taking a good look around for the perfect rental, they do exist at present.

It may surprise a few of you to know that in my younger years I used to collect stamps, and I dabbled in coins and banknotes, whilst my other half has always been a fan of collectables, particularly small curios that were made commercially at the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th.

Recently she's seen quite a few small pieces at local markets that she's been quite keen to buy if the price had been right. Our local markets don't have a great selection but fortunately most of the stuff we can by has been sitting an a garage or attic for years and nobody knows its value.

This is where my industrious partner has put her energies, looking for old metal lunch boxes, vintage metal signs, and if she can find them, old toys like barbie dolls or die cast cars.

Auction sites like eBay are a great place to value items like these since they are often listed and sold, and taking the time to find and then make an offer on these items can be quite profitable, except that in some cases she buys collectables purely for her own use.

A few years ago she bought a small collection of Avon glass bottles that had been used for perfume, which now seem to have appreciated considerably as the demand for Avon collector bottles has picked up. Avon sales reps and fans of the company are driving demand for these bottles, which is also unfortunately adding to their scarcity.

On a similar note carnival glass if you can find it has really taken off and good pieces can be sold for a reasonable amount. I joke that her collection is so valuable we could use it as security for a mortgage.

My recent posts on Spanish mortgages, inspired by my desire to note what I learn about property investing in Spain, has led me to thinking that I really need to write about the top banks in Spain for prospective mortgagors.

Regardless of where in Spain you are, the major retail banks are all represented, but in some areas local banks might have a bigger presence, for example in Andalucia where Unicaja dominates in number of branches.

Spain's two biggest banks, Santander and Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (BBVA) tend to be represented in every town, as are the other major banks Caja Madrid and La Caixa, although not in most small villages.

In the smaller villages you'll often find a local bank and La Caixa represented, and if there is a large expat population then a dedicated branch with English and German speakers of one of the larger banks might also be present.

Santander also owns Abbey National in the UK, so their mortgage offerings have recently become very competitive and much better attuned to the needs of expats from the UK and Northern Europe, forcing the other major mortgage lenders to play catch up.

This has led to a very competitive market for mortgages, and may see further consolidation of Spanish banks in the future. whilst spanish banks are generally unaffected by the current global financial crisis, they are sitting tight and not looking too keenly at expansion, but once foreign markets regain their strength Spanish banks are well placed to make acquisitions.

Within Spain this could see mergers or take overs amongst the biggest banks, Santander and BBVA in particular being in a strong financial position.

In terms of where to get a mortgage, mergers and acquisitions rarely affect existing loan contracts, but can lead to branch closures, especially in the smaller towns. Ronda for example is a town of just 40,000 people yet has around a dozen branches of Unicaja, and in the event of a take over could see many of these closed.

The largest mortgage lenders in Spain are;
Bancaixa, Banco Pastor, Banco Popular, BankInter, BBK, BBVA, Caixa Catalunya, Caixa Galicia, Caixanova, Caja Duero, Caja España, Caja Madrid, CAM, IberCaja, Kutxa, La Caixa, Sabadell, Santander, and Unicaja.

In the past I've been highly critical of the Eurovision Song contest, in fact last year I was positively disgusted with the whole event. 2009 however is shaping up to be something quite different.

The young lady pictured here, Ángeles Vela, is one of Ronda's young musicians, currently at high school and looking forward to studying music at university, and who has been selected by popular vote on Spanish radio to compete against 10 other singers for a chance to represent Spain.

Here in Ronda there is tremendous excitement brewing over Vela, who has been given the sweet nickname Angel of Hope, mostly because she never stops smiling and her eyes are always laughing, although she confesses to being a shy person by nature.

The TV special that Ángeles is participating in will be shown live on TVE in 3 weeks, on Saturday the 28th February at 22.30, so if you're in Spain make sure you tune in to watch. She will be performing a rythm and blues number entitled "Vístete De Primavera".

I'm wishing her all the luck in the world and hope she gets through, not least because anyone who has the guts to sing in front of hundreds of millions of live viewers deserves our support.

Sadly another of my favourite Spanish performers will be competing against Ángeles, another lovely lady by the name of Sandra Polop, a girl from Valencia who regularly appears on a TV show, 'Al Pie de la Letra' we enjoy watching. Sandra is the professional singer who provides the initial verse of the songs that contestants have to finish.

Oh the choice, who to support, the local girl or a known favourite?

Winter is a terrible time of the year for a lot of people who suffer bacterial skin infections, the combination of cold damp days, lack of air flow in our living areas, and heating systems make for very suitable breeding conditions, and lead to worse infections than in summer.

At least that's our experience. We tend to wear extra clothing to keep warm and this is precisely what the bacteria are looking for. Where we live we only have portable heaters that we move from room to room, so our clothes in the wardrobe tend to get quite cold.

I don't think they're damp, but as soon as they touch warm skin any moisture in them becomes noticeable, and once again, perfect breeding conditions for skin infections, one of the worst Bacterial Infection Symptoms we have to put up with is painful red welts, that are similar to acne.

It doesn't matter how good your hygiene standards are you are still going to be infected if you are exposed to bacteria, which of course is invisible so you'd never know you were in it's vicinity. You can even become infected while out shopping at your local supermarket.

For us, we've been popping into our local drugstore to get anti-bacterial cream which we're told is the best form of bacterial infection treatment, it eases the pain almost immediately, but still takes several days to notice any difference, and a few weeks after the first breakout we're still applying ointment.

Bacterial infection is never pleasant, we still don't know why we were infected when many of our friends weren't, it's possible our house is unhealthy, at least it's finally showing signs of healing.

I know winter is nearly over, and we can't wait for the warmer weather when this bacteria won't be so aggressive, it's costing us a small fortune in treatment bills.