Near-retirement non-US real-estate investment question

Here, real estate rents are tax free, up to 6k in local currency. Tenants pay the equivalent of annual property tax (it's really municipal resource usage tax). Tenants pay their own electricity, water, and bring their own appliances - much like in parts of Europe, and Quebec. One also needs to put down 50% to buy a secdonary property - but surprisingly this keeps rents down, and rates of return don't match anything close to what I've seen in North America.

The long and the short - I constantly debate buying (residential) property, to rent it out. Property growth is probably 2-3% annually (which in the future is capital gains). The tenant would absolutely cover the mortgage, or 90% of the mortgage (fair enough). Thinking through this, is this a reasonable hedge with a bit of growth, that is also disconnected from the market? Or, am I, in reality making my life a bigger headache, when I can just lock in low 3-4% growth in a local currency ETF (and yes, pay 25% capital gains).

I would love opinions, I constantly struggle with this.

submitted by /u/iam-123-456-789
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source https://www.reddit.com/r/RealEstate/comments/1tsmhgi/nearretirement_nonus_realestate_investment/