If I had to choose, of course I would choose to invest in cryptocurrency, I would put my money in a coin that has quite good fundamentals, namely bitcoin, even though crypto has quite wild fluctuations, I am quite confident about this digital development in the future. Investing in crypto doesn't require a large amount of capital to own it, just the small amount of money we have, we already have it, it's different with property, we have to have large enough capital for a down payment when initially purchasing the property and paying it in installments over a long period of time.
But as you said, bitcoin is very volatile and we cannot know what will happen in the future. No one knows when the bull season will come and how long the bear season will last. In case you invest in bitcoin and the bear season lasts for years, you will be stuck just like the real estate investment case you mentioned.
In general, any investment has its pros and cons and bitcoin is no exception. In addition, which assets to invest in will depend on each person's financial ability, plan, strategy and preferences. Giving advice to others is not a wise idea when we are not in the same situation and perspective.