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Our Story

Mar Delux is a real estate company founded by Marla Marquez and Juan Ruiz in 2001. Marla hails from Florida and lived and worked for many years in Asia. Juan is from Granada, and he lived and worked in Mallorca. Inspired by their backgrounds, travels and the beauty of Spain´s Costa Tropical of Granada, the two combined their love for real estate, design and innovation and Juan´s talent for creating things and began developing, unique and luxurious villas in Almuñecar and Salobreña, two delightful towns on the Costa Tropical.

After developing several villas, they decided to keep some to offer as luxurious, holiday rental villas. The couple once again differentiated themselves by offering amenities that weren't customary at the time, combined with unrivalled customer service. This was the beginning of their foray into the vacation rental market.

Then in 2007, they launched a real estate agency specialising in the sale of luxury properties, and for 15 years they ran the most successful real estate agency on Spain's Costa Tropical, which was renown not only for its sales volume, but for its professionalism.

All along, they continued to develop extraordinary villas with magnificent sea views. In July 2021, they decided to focus exclusively on their real passion of development so that they could dedicate all of their energy into the boutique urbanisation of designer, modern villas they are currently building in La Herradura, Spain, called Urb. Valdemar, which is raising the bar for contemporary design in the area. They have exciting plans to continue developing modern style properties on the Costa Tropical of Spain to be able to offer more clients their ideal of "Luxury Living by the Sea."

Our Mission

Our Mission

To create quality homes with stunning designs which are luxurious, functional and environmentally friendly,

to delight our clients and exceed their expectations with our one-of-a-kind villas,

to deliver unrivalled service, with efficiency, quality and integrity, and last but not least,

to offer our clients "Luxury Living by the Sea."

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Years Experience

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Developments

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Properties Sold

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Happy Clients

What Our Client's Say

We bought our house in La Herradura in 2022 when it was still under construction. Despite being in a very advanced phase, we were able to make some changes in both distribution and materials and everything was facilitated by Juan and his construction company. The quality of the construction is magnificent, any detail that we have requested once installed in the house has been resolved quickly and efficiently.
They delivered the house to us on the scheduled date. Marla made sure that all the documentation was prepared and we were able to enjoy our house from the first moment. Thank you very much for your professionalism and honesty. We are delighted.

Pilar and Francis – Spain
April 2023

In summer of 2019 we rented a villa in Salobreña and fell in love with the community of Monte de los Almendros, and we decided that we wanted to see what was available. We met Juan Ruiz and Marla Marquez who showed us a plot of land with a proposed luxury villa design. We liked the plan and bought it in construction (off plan) and followed the whole construction process. Whatever uncertainty we had – making a big investment in a country we never had bought any property in, didn´t know the language and hadn´t heard about the company before – was cleared when Juan Ruiz and Marla Marquez helped us through the process with great professionalism. They even finished the villa in the promised time. I can highly recommend their company if you are looking for a trustworthy and professional team to build your villa.

Frank Svandal – Sweden
March 2023

My wife and I bought a villa in the spring 2024 in La Herradura from Mar Delux. It has been a very good experience with the villa exceeding our expectations in terms of finish and quality. In addition, we have gotten tremendous help through the process from Marla & Juan who are the owners of Mar Delux ranging from getting the villa operational to local support. We can highly recommend Mar Delux.

Frederik Kier – Denmark
September 2025

We took possession of our house in Urbanisation Valdemar July 1st, 2025. We had previously owned an apartment on Costa del sol. And what a difference! In buying from Marla and Juan we didn’t only get a beautiful, high quality home with great views in the charming La Herradura. We also got nonstop help and service from them and from their whole team of pleasant and competent colleagues, We and our children are confidently looking forward to enjoying this wonderful place for many years. Thanks to Marla and Juan. Nellie and Jes, Denmark

Nellie & Jes – Denmark
September 2025

When we decided to buy a holiday home in Spain, La Herradura was recommended by a Spanish friend who described it as an authentic Spanish coastal town, unspoilt by tourism, with skiing just over an hour away.
Over several years we viewed numerous properties and eventually decided to buy one of the new houses being built by Juan Ruiz and his team. The position of the development is superb – magnificent views of the bay and sunsets and an easy walk into town. Our house has been finished to a very high standard and Juan has responded very rapidly and efficiently during construction and afterwards to any requests from us. The finished product is a superb luxurious home.
All the legals and financial considerations were handled by Marla Maquez in a very friendly, efficient and professional manner.
Our overall experience of buying through Mar Delux has been a very positive one. Both Juan and Marla have been very responsive and helpful to any requests and we are delighted with the finished product. It’s a beautiful contemporary house in a very special part of Spain.

Tricia W. – UK
March 2023

We had a first house built 4 years ago then we bought a second turnkey house 2 years ago and now in 2023 land. Why are we loyal to Mar Delux represented by Marla and Juan? We found in them all the qualities of a good partner such as: the quality of construction, an experienced team, professionalism, fast response time, seriousness, listening, advice and legal support and overall great service. For all these qualities we recommend Mar Delux and Marla and Juan for all of your projects. When you’re not on site, they take care of everything and the job is done well. What a delight!

Christelle and Michel – France
April 2023