Well that depends - if the real estate market holds and they pay for all the appropriate upkeeps. What about the situation where real estate properties go down and it's difficult to find renters or pay for upkeep on the property. Also - rental real estate doesn't rise in the same way the single family homes do.

The landlord is the scourge narrative bugs me. There are for sure a bunch of terrible land lords especially the huge soulless companies but there are a lot of little family operations that don't try and gouge their tenants.