Pokie heir Mark Ainsworth sells Birchgrove's Clifton Villa for $9.5 million

The sons of Sydney’s billionaire pokie king Len Ainsworth and luxury car dealer Ian Pagent have done a $9.5 million deal on the historic Birchgrove residence, Clifton Villa.

Mark Ainsworth, one of seven sons of the Aristocrat Game Technology chairman, set a Birchgrove record when he bought Gothic-style residence on the Birchgrove clifftop with his then wife Belinda in 2000 for $3,525,000.

Records show Nick Pagent, chief executive of the family’s Auto Sports Group, and his wife Kylie negotiated to buy the property from Ainsworth directly, having already rented it in recent years.

The non-waterfront, 1870-built property was built for tailor George Elsworthy and did a stint in the early 1880s as a private boarding school.

Ainsworth already holds the suburb record for his 2008 purchase of a waterfront house around the corner for $11.5 million. He also made headlines in  2015 when he bought a Surry Hills converted warehouse with a heart-shaped pool for $7.55 million.

Other members of the Pagent family have been upgrading their real estate this year. Dad Ian Pagent has bought a major rebuild on Balmoral Beach for $12 million, and his daughter Jessica and her husband, former Olympic sprinter Matt Shirvington, bought a $7 million home also in Mosman.

Nick Pagent and Kylie also own a terrace in Rozelle they bought in 1998 for $435,000, and have leased since 2013.