It is every parent’s desire to give their children the best start in life, but few would ever aspire to buying them a £1million house as a leaving home present. Unless, that is, you happen to be as wealthy as Tony and Cherie Blair.

The former prime minister and his wife have paid £975,000 in cash for a maisonette in west London for their 22-year-old daughter Kathryn, bringing the family property portfolio to nine homes.

Land Registry documents show that the three-bedroom property, which has two bathrooms, a garage and its own lift, was bought on July 23 in the names of Cherie Blair and Kathryn Blair.

It means the Blairs’ only daughter, who is studying law, will never have to worry about mortgage payments as long as she lives in the apartment, which is within walking distance of her parents’ home in Connaught Square.

Since leaving office, Mr Blair is reputed to have earned upwards of £20 million from public speaking engagements and as an adviser to foreign governments.

Euan Blair, 26, who works for the investment bank Morgan Stanley, recently sold his £500,000 flat in London to buy a £1.3million house, also with his mother.

Kathryn Blair, a student at King’s College London, spent the past year in Strasbourg on an Erasmus exchange scheme, where she lived in a £250,000 flat bought by her parents.

She is expected to move into her new home in London within weeks following refurbishment and redecoration work.

(Read by Renee Haines. Renee Haines is a journalist at the China Daily Web site.)

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(Agencies)