He may be donating his multi-million pound earnings from his new biography to a good cause – but it seems Tony Blair and his wife Cherie still have enough money to buy a new home in the Caribbean.
The couple are house-hunting in Barbados for a villa to add to their already formidable property empire, The Sunday Telegraph understands. They have viewed properties on the island with the intention of buying a holiday home to which they could eventually retire.
The Blairs are believed to have been looking in earnest for a house on the former British colony, which has long been their favoured holiday destination, for at least three months. According to sources, hundreds of digital photographs of for-sale properties have been emailed to the couple.
A senior representative from one of the main estate agents on Barbados said: "Tony has a lot of friends on the island and has looked at property but he has not purchased anything yet to the best of our knowledge."
A leading solicitor on the island, which has a population of 280,000, said that she expects the Blairs to buy a property through a company – rather than in their own names – in an attempt to disguise the purchase for security and privacy reasons.
A new villa on the island would be the Blairs' eighth property: it was revealed this weekend that the former Prime Minister and his wife have spent £975,000 for a maisonette in west London for their only daughter, Kathryn, 22, a student, bringing the family's portfolio to some seven homes worth up to £15 million.
The couple are said to be open minded about whether they buy an existing house in Barbados or whether they buy a plot with planning permission for a new build.
A spacious and secluded six-bedroom villa with a swimming pool would cost around $6.2 million (£4 million), although Mr Blair is also believed to be keen to have a tennis court so he can play his favourite sport on his own land.
One of the locations the couple are said to favour is Apes Hill, where some 200 upmarket homes are being built on prime location land about 1,000 feet above sea level.
Plots alone range in cost from $400,000 (£258,000) to $10 million (£6,445,000) – before a brick has been laid.
In the UK, the Blairs' main homes are a £4.5 million property near Hyde Park, bought for £3.7 million in 2004, and a country house in Buckinghamshire, formerly owned by the actor Sir John Gielgud, now worth an estimated £6 million and bought in 2008 for £5.75 million. Including their latest purchase for their daughter, they have five other properties, some bought for their other children.
Mr Blair has had several conversations with Barbadians – or Bajans as they are known locally – in which he has spoken of his fondness for the island and his hopes of buying a property there.
"He told me he is a great admirer of our state education system and he would have liked his
children to have gone to school in Barbados," said one islander, who has become friendly with the former Prime Minister during his visits to Barbados.
The Blairs are also said to like the weather, the beaches, the low crime rate, the stylish restaurants and the laid-back lifestyle of the island in which celebrities are generally left alone by the local population.
Celebrities who own – or who have owned – property on the island include Sir Cliff Richard, Oprah Winfrey, Gary Lineker and the golfer Ian Woosnam. Sir Cliff let Mr Blair stay at his six-bedroom villa on the Sugar Hill estate, situated close to the island's exclusive west coast, for at least three consecutive summers while the Labour politician was still Prime Minister.
Recent A-list celebrity visitors to Barbados have included Jude Law and his girlfriend Sienna Miller, Hugh Grant and his former girlfriend Jemima Khan, Sir Paul McCartney, Sir Mick Jagger and Prince Harry. Tiger Woods chose the island for his 2004 wedding to Elin Nordegren, from whom he was divorced last week.
Mr Blair's new book A Journey will be published on Wednesday amid tight security. Mr Blair has said that, out of respect for Britain's Armed Forces, he is donating the proceeds from the book to the Royal British Legion. The final amount will depend on sales but the charity has been told to expect between £4 million and £5 million.
The former Prime Minister, who led the Labour Party to three consecutive election victories, is estimated to have earned tens of millions of pounds a year since stepping down as Prime Minister in June 2007.
The bulk of his earnings have come from high-powered business consultancies and speaking engagements.
As well as lucrative advisory roles for JP Morgan and Zurich Financial Services, he also set up Tony Blair Associates, which receives payments for advising both the Kuwaiti government and Mubadala, an Abu Dhabi sovereign fund.
Estimates of Mr Blair's personal fortune have ranged wildly from £20 million to £60 million. He has employed a staff of 130 as he travelled the world, often by private jet and staying at lavish five-star hotels.
A spokesman for Mr and Mrs Blair said last night: "They have definitely, 100 per cent, categorically not bought a home in Barbados."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/tony-blair/7969464/Bestselling-Tony-Blair-goes-house-hunting-in-Barbados.html
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