Mystery of Euan Blair's £550,000 bachelor flat - bought two weeks before he starts first ever job

Euan, 24, has been spotted entering and leaving the flat in fashionable Islington, North London, and a firm of solicitors confirmed that it is carrying out conveyancing work for him.

But a spokesman for Tony and Cherie Blair denied that the couple had added the two-bedroom flat to their extensive property portfolio.

Euan Blair and friend leaving the £550,000 flat he is buying in Islington

Euan will earn an estimated £30,000 a year when he starts work as a graduate trainee at Morgan Stanley bank within the next few weeks.

If he has purchased the property without help from his parents, or from other sources, it suggests he has secured a mortgage of up to 18 times his salary – and this in the
middle of a credit crunch in which other first-time buyers are struggling to secure loans a fraction of that size.

Euan was first seen at the flat, which is near the Blairs’ former family home in the area, before graduating from Yale University last month.

Debbie Valentine, a conveyancing solicitor for London-based firm Russell, Jones and Walker, which has previously carried out work for the Blairs, confirmed to The Mail on Sunday: ‘I am acting for Euan Blair in this matter. I am unable to comment further.’

1: Former constituency home in Trimdon Colliery, County Durham, cost£30,000 in 1983

2&3: Two flats in apartment block in Bristol, bought in 2002 for total of £500,000

The seller, Paris-based trademark lawyer Patrick Boyle, said he believed the flat had been bought by the Blairs, although he had not had any personal contact with them.

Callers to estate agency Foxtons, which was marketing the property, were told that the flat had been on the market for £550,000 and that the asking price had been met.

But a spokesman for the Blairs said: ‘The Blairs have not bought nor paid for this flat, for themselves or for anyone else.’ Questions relating to whether Euan had purchased it – and if so, how – were  unanswered.

Euan was recently seen emerging from the flat with a female friend before heading to a nearby pub for burger and chips.

If he is the buyer, it would take the value of the Blair family property portfolio to more than £9million. Last month, this newspaper revealed that Tony and Cherie had purchased the former country home of Sir John Gielgud in Buckinghamshire.

4: Townhouse in Connaught Square, Central London, cost the Blair's £3.65 million in 2004

5: House in Archery Mews, next to Connaught Square home, bought in 2007 for £800,000

Patrick Bunton, a director of leading mortgage broker London & Country, said: ‘The mortgage market is very tough at the moment, especially for first-time buyers.

Lenders will no longer advance 100 per cent mortgages to them. They will go no higher than 95 per cent. That means a deposit is vital.’

Asked what sort of multiple of salary would be advanced to a young graduate entering a professional job with excellent prospects, Mr Bunton said: ‘They could expect four or 4.5 times salary at most. And these days lenders take into account a person’s outgoings before making the offer. ’

Euan’s new flat is just a few miles from the London headquarters of Morgan Stanley, where his father’s former right-hand man, Jonathan Powell, is a top executive.

6: Grade II listed county home in Buckinghamshire purchased

Mr Blair has earned an estimated £10million since leaving Downing Street last year and is well on his way to becoming Britain’s richest former Prime Minister.

He has consultancies worth £4.5million a year, is understood to have received a £5million advance for his memoirs, and raked in at least £1million from public speaking engagements.

Mrs Blair has also banked around £1million from her autobiography.