That's pretty much how the private rental market worked in the UK, for a two or three decades at least. The game was to buy a house with a small deposit, break even on the running and loan costs, and benefit from the huge leverage in your investment as house prices rose.

Recently, the current government decided this game was unfair, and tightened taxes and housing regulations to the point where it only really makes sense now for large corporate landlords. Unsurprisingly this led to landlords exiting the market, and now there are too few rentals, leading to insane rents.