Yes, rental income property is not a “passive investment” where the money is “parked” with the “gain” of the rental income. That “gain” has many factors against it with rental income property, that blue chip corporate and treasury dividends do not have.
The carrying costs and management hassles make real estate a questionable investment. If you do a discounted cash flow analysis on a rental property you’ll find that the constant outflow of money results in a return that isn’t that good, unless maybe the property is in a hot area, in a great location or has other highly desirable factors.
Its true that dividends are discretionary and there’s no obligation for a company to pay them, but dividend cuts are rare, and often predictable. Of course, any cut will also likely impact the share price as well.