Healthcare is the name of the game today with a new listing and new acquisitions in the booming sector.

The highly anticipated float of the David Di Pilla-backed HealthCo REIT (HCW) took place at 11 am this morning, with the first trade at $2.20, jumping briefly to $2.30.

The Healthcare and Wellness REIT was underwritten at $650 million with a list price of $2 per unit. It will sit alongside the $500m unlisted HealthCo fund. The listed and unlisted funds are a spin-off from the Home Consortium empire set up by the former UBS investment banker Di Pilla. It owns a range of private hospitals and medical centres.

Di Pilla started HomeCo with former Masters sites five years ago and listed it in October 2019 with the backing of his former UBS colleague Matthew Grounds together with the Oatley family and Aussie Home Loans founder John Symond.

Last year the HomeCo Daily Needs REIT was listed and owns $1.6 billion of neighbourhood and large-format malls weighted to the eastern seaboard.

At the virtual listing this morning Di Pilla said: “Home-Co team you are a brave, courageous and elite team of individuals that are performing at the highest level”.

Meanwhile, the $11.4 billion diversified giant Dexus is also expanding its medical and health care portfolio with the purchase Arcadia Pittwater Private Hospital in Sydney for $50.5 million from Breckenridge Funds Management.

The building is 5-level private sub-acute rehabilitation hospital located in Warriewood on the Northern Beaches of Sydney.

The Dexus managed, Dexus Healthcare Property Fund, will lease the site to the sitting tenant, Arcadia Health Care for a 26.5 year term. The fund has $1.3 billion assets under management across nine assets after $600 million of healthcare acquisitions in the 2021 financial year.

Rob Lloyd, managing director of Breckenridge said the sale of the property will deliver an “excellent result for our investors”.

Dexus shares are down 0.5 per cent to $10.58 in early afternoon trading.