Indeed, but with real estate you have to pay taxes every year (on both improvements and the land itself), in addition to taxes on the gains (unless you do a like-kind exchange) and anything you buy for your property (though much of that can be deducted). Not to mention holding real estate indirectly employees people to maintain said property.

In short, real estate speculation benefits the greater economy far more than coin speculation. That being said there are definitely downsides, such as vacancy, but that's more of a symptom of capitalism in general than real estate speculation in particular.

TLDR: Real estate speculation helps the surrounding local economy more than bitcoin, however both are unideal.