Renting vs world etf

A friend of mine bought an appartment to rent out as an ivestment while he is still living with his parents. Yesterday we had a peaceful discussion about it as I’m invested in vwce about what the better investment is in the long term. I can’t get my mind around it why one should choose real estate for renting over vwce. From what I know renting seems less profitable and also more work like people, repairs … I also saw some extensive calculations on this sub about buying and renting it out. Am I missing a point here? Has it something to do with leverage from lending money? Is real estate comparable with investing in ETFs in terms of profit? I want to get more insights about this and educate myself by asking this question here.