Tony Blair is taking advantage of falling property prices to go house hunting. The former prime minister has viewed two possible homes in Buckinghamshire in the past month.

Insiders in the country house market say he is looking for a historic home within a 20-mile radius of Chequers, his former official weekend residence.

One of the homes he viewed is even called Chequers Manor, but the one that caught his eye the most was once owned by Ian Anderson, the flute-playing lead singer of Jethro Tull.

Owning a rock star’s pad would be an added delight for a former member of the band Ugly Rumours who regularly played his guitar in Downing Street.

Blair is understood to have a budget of £5m and be willing to extend his mortgage debt to almost £9m but since he is now earning up to £250,000 a time as a speaker, he can borrow the money on the strength of future memoirs and speaking tours.

The house he liked the most, Pophleys, a 16th-century red-brick farmhouse built on the site of a former convent near Stokenchurch, Buckinghamshire, was originally on the market last year for £6m but has now been reduced to £5.25m. It was owned by Anderson in the 1970s when his band were riding high in the album charts with albums such as Thick as a Brick.

The Blairs were pipped by another family who put in an offer close to the asking price but they have since withdrawn, leaving the Blairs a clear field.

Pophleys is an eight-bedroom house set in 13 acres on the edge of the Chilterns with stables, a tennis court, a gym and a staff cottage. The family need outbuildings to house the special branch bodyguards assigned to each former prime minister.

Crispin Holborow, head of the country house department at Savills, which is selling the property, declined to comment.

However, one property market insider said: “It’s a nice family country house. It’s quite private and about one-and-a-half miles from the M40, but it’s not that secure. There’s a bridleway that goes through the land and runs quite close to the house.”

Chequers Manor is just a few miles away. The Georgian country house has a sweeping staircase, six bedrooms, four bathrooms and a swimming pool as well as tennis courts and a gym. The outbuildings include a lodge to the property.

It, too, has been reduced in price, to just over £3.9m but it is believed the Blairs were put off by its proximity to a main road.

If the Blairs do make an offer on Pophleys or another of the properties they have viewed, it will be the sixth item in their portfolio.

As well as their old constituency home in Sedgefield and two flats bought in Bristol while son Euan was a student there, they own a Georgian townhouse dubbed a “mini Downing Street” in Connaught Square, London, and an £800,000 mews house behind it to knock through.

The Connaught Square mortgage alone is understood to be costing £16,000 a month.

Blair now has a part-time job as a senior adviser with JPMorgan Chase, the Wall Street bank. The bank has not specified how much Blair is being paid for his “unique” advice but speculation in New York has put the figure at £500,000 a year.

Cherie Blair has struck a £1.5m deal to write her own memoirs, while her work as a barrister is likely to bring in at least £250,000 a year.

Asked about the house hunting, a spokesman for Blair said: “Our view is this is a private matter and we have no comment.”

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