Eklund, 49, shows off the outdoor sauna at his Roxbury, CT, estate where he goes to feel centered and sentimental.
“Million Dollar Listing” alum Fredrik Eklund is constantly expanding his real estate empire by doing business across several state and international borders. Yet, the Swedish-born celebrity real estate broker consistently returns to his roots at a Connecticut home that reminds him of where he grew up.
The 1980s-built, stone-style country house in Roxbury, CT, that is reminiscent of Eklund’s childhood environment is one of a half-dozen homes in his growing property portfolio.
While hired to sell units in Manhattan’s 64 University Place, Miami Beach’s Shore Club, and another luxury project in Austin, TX, Eklund, 49, purchased residences in each for himself. He also holds an apartment in Paris and is in the midst of a multiyear renovation of a 13th-century chapel ruin in Montepulciano, Italy.
“I'm everywhere,” he tells Realtor.com® in the latest Celebrity Sanctuary.
Currently, he and his business partner at Douglas Elliman, John Gomes, oversee a team of nearly 100 agents who have closed more than $30 billion in sales while working out of 13 offices located across five states.
Previously, during an 11-year run on reality TV, the Bravo star famously filmed on opposite coasts as he made network history as the first main cast member of both “Million Dollar Listing New York” and “Million Dollar Listing Los Angeles.”
Swedish-born celebrity real estate broker Fredrik Eklund owns homes in several cities, but is able to consistently return to his roots at a Connecticut home that reminds him of where he grew up. (Instagram/Fredrik Eklund) 
Eklund has described his Connecticut home as his sanctuary—it's where he built his own outdoor Swedish sauna. (Fredrik Eklund / Instagram) 
Eklund considers the outdoor sauna to be his personal sanctuary, where he often spots wildlife on his property. (Fredrik Eklund) 
In the five years since Eklund's final appearance on Bravo's "Million Dollar Listing" franchise, he’s leveled up his work, stayed focused on family, and remained close to several costars. (Instagram/Fredrik Eklund) In the five years since his final appearance in the popular franchise, Eklund reveals he’s been able to level up his work, stay focused on family, and remain close to several costars.
“It's funny because I had lunch with Steve Gold yesterday, I just did some deals with Ryan [Serhant], [and] I was chatting on the phone with Luis [D. Ortiz]. I feel close to that coast of the cast,” he says.
“When I decided to leave Bravo, they were sad about it, but I think they understood the business had gotten so big and the show was so big, too, that there was really nothing more for me to feel like I had to do on TV, at least not in that format.
“It’s business as usual since then. The kids are getting older. I collect art. I've been buying properties and traveling a lot, but very much doubling down on my real estate business,” adds the author of “The Sell: The Secrets of Selling Anything to Anyone.”
It's “mostly Miami” where Eklund, his husband Derek Kaplan, and their 8-year-old twins, daughter, Milla, and son, Freddy, spend their time together. But it’s the approximately 9-acre New England estate Eklund bought in 2016 that’s been his preferred place to retreat over the years.
In this edition of Celebrity Sanctuary, Eklund explains what makes the six-bedroom, seven-bathroom, nearly 6,000-square-foot, Connecticut country house so special, specifically the outdoor sauna sanctum where he goes to feel centered and sentimental.
Though it’s “mostly Miami” where Eklund, his husband Derek Kaplan, and their 8-year-old twins, daughter, Milla, and son, Freddy, spend their time together, it’s the 9-acre New England estate Eklund bought in 2016 that’s been his preferred place to retreat over the years. (Instagram/Fredrik Eklund) 
Eklund is also in the midst of a multiyear renovation of a 13th-century chapel ruin in Montepulciano, Italy. (Instagram/Fredrik Eklund) 
Eklund's growing property portfolio includes an apartment in Paris. (Instagram/Fredrik Eklund) My sanctuary, it's in Connecticut. We wanted a sanctuary where you couldn't even see any neighbors, far away from Manhattan [so] that it would feel like [the] true countryside.
I did not want Hamptons. I didn't want Greenwich. I did not want where it could feel like there's a scene, or that I would run into clients from New York. We were opposite of what everybody else wants. People want to belong to clubs and this and that.
For me, it was very much how I grew up. I wanted to almost have a farm with animals far away, so that's why we started looking in this area, Litchfield and Roxbury. Marilyn Monroe was [once] living there. Our property is right next door to the Calder estate, Alexander Calder, who is probably the No. 1 sculptor in the world—they're like $80,000,000 sculptures—so we can see those sculptures from our property.
There [is] a lot of artistic energy there and a really cool community, but super laid back. There are no restaurants. There are cows and sheep, and [it’s] beautiful. We found this property that wasn't on the market ... but long story short, we bought it and ever since then, we're completely in love with it.
The 9 acres that we have is just woods, and we have a lake. It's very important for me to look at water all the time, wherever I have a house or an apartment. [It’s] very calming to me.
We cook a lot. I try to create this slice of heaven [for] everybody that’s ever been there—breathing the country air, seeing all the flowers that we plant, then go out on the pond and have long walks in the woods in the fall, which is my favorite season.
I have a special room there. I don’t even know if you can call it a room, but I built an outdoor glass sauna by my swimming pool looking out above all—if you look down, you see the forest, the treetops, and it's very special for me.
I see big bears walking by sometimes. We have a family of geese. They're huge. Then we have deer there. I think it's our property [that attracts them and] this is one of the reasons we bought it because it feels like a zoo. It's a lot of families of animals. I hung up these little things for [the] hummingbirds, I have those sugar things, and now there's hundreds of them coming and it's so beautiful.
I’m Swedish, [and] I grew up in these wood teak saunas with the real fire—not electric—the real fire, wood, and it's a different culture there. Back 100 years ago, women used to give birth in the saunas because it's the only place where there's no bacteria because it's so hot in there. It’s the cleanest place in the whole house. It's a place where we were always together growing up, and it's very meditative to me.
When I come out to Connecticut from a long week in Miami or working or landing in New York for [an] international work trip, the first thing [I do when] I go there is I go sit there and I look out.
Eklund's outdoor sauna overlooks a lake and forest that are part of his sprawling 9-acre estate. (Instagram/Fredrik Eklund) 
One reason Eklund fell in love with the property is the various species of wildlife that wander around the land. (Instagram/Fredrik Eklund) 
Fall is Eklund's favorite season for walks in the woods at his Connecticut home. (Instagram/Fredrik Eklund) 
Eklund defines sanctuary as "wellness, longevity, and meditation" and has upgraded his home with features that support his health goals. (Instagram/Fredrik Eklund) It's a Swedish sauna, so it's teak wood. Those saunas are not supposed to be anything but that. For me, it's an architectural experience because Scandinavian design is fairly similar to Japanese, the minimal [style]. It's supposed to feel like it's always been there. There's nothing fancy about it, although it was expensive to build because I wanted a larger sauna, and I wanted two ovens and I wanted a certain type of glass.
I remember when we built it, the contractor was like, “This is the biggest glass you can get,” and I'm like, “No, I want more.” He was like, “Well, that's going to be very expensive because [it’s] tempered glass.” I said, “I want this whole side of the sauna, glass, looking out over the woods.”
We have these buckets of water that we throw on these huge black, lava rock-looking stones so that they create steam inside. It's very, very hot, and then we beat ourselves with these branches of trees. It's a very common thing, so the whole room smells really fresh. We also have these eucalyptus [drops that are] minty and [smell] really good.
These are all old emotional attachment things for me from my grandfather, my grandmother, who had a sauna like that [and were] very into the sauna culture of northern Sweden where they were from, and I grew up with a lot of those. It brings me a lot of memories. They didn't have a sauna in glass, but they had a sauna with a little window—maybe 6x6-inch window like a little tunnel where you could see the water from it. As a kid, I spent almost every summer there, and I sat in there and I used to look at that water.
I have a busy life, so there’s nothing digital in there. I want to get away from electricity.
I come up with my best business ideas in there. That's where I'm the most creative. That's where I feel the most relaxed if I ever have had any stress. You sweat out all the microplastics and the heavy metals, and they say you should really do 20 minutes of heavy-sweating sauna five times a week. It's proven now to be very, very good for you, for heart conditions, for everything. People that do this [are] supposed to live like a decade or two longer.
I do it in the winter. I do it in the summer. Every season. I do it all year round. Swedish people, we definitely do sauna in the winter and then we go roll in the snow outside.
I do it at nighttime a lot, which is also very sanctuarylike because then I swim in the pool, and there's stars all above because we're so far out in the countryside. There's no light pollution. The stars are crazy. I swim and I keep the pool heated almost all winter.
Sanctuary, for me, is wellness, longevity, and meditation. We [also] built this whole downstairs—I have red lights. I have a NASA space lighting system that is very special. I have a huge commercial cold plunge down there. I have the big red light sauna down there [that] is separate from the outdoor sauna, which is further down by the pool. I have Pilates. I have all of this machinery down there, vibration machines, and a whole relaxation area. We did this recently, but that whole downstairs completed the perfection for me.