Earlier quoted context omitted.
I’ve heard this but I’ve not experienced it. If corporations are buying houses and using it as rental income, they’re probably losing money. Ignoring vacation rentals, detached homes are among the hardest to rent.
Newsflash, they aren't losing money
Most RE investors I know who do this make good money only if they buy a significantly undervalued house - often one that is unsellable. They buy it, put in $50K to repair it, and then rent it out.
Those who buy regular houses at 20% down and rent it out have a target of $200/mo net profit. Clearly, they're not buying $600K houses at $120K down to get a measly $200/mo out of it.
RE investing - especially the rental market - is very nice in that it's pretty simple math and very transparent. Anyone can plug in the numbers and see what they'll get. Generally, in places where houses go for $800K, the rent will likely not even cover the loan payments. So then you play the game of taking a long term sustained loss in the hope of appreciation. But as someone else pointed out, this makes sense only if you're paying about 20% down and not with paying full cash.
Buying houses with all cash is almost always a very poor investment.
Random example in my area: Houses in a certain neighborhood are selling for $900K. They rent for $3.5K/mo. Assuming no costs, it would take 21 years to get the money back. Even with rent appreciation, it would take well over 10 years. Over that period, even including appreciation of the house, you're almost guaranteed to get better returns with the S&P500.