The Record is reporting on people's reactions to changes in the housing market over the past year. The story suggests that an increase in the supply to accommodate the double cohort has improved the market for students looking for housing.
Student housing floods market The Record 24 Aug 2004
With the elimination of the fifth year of high school in 2003, students were not only competing to get in to university, but they were scrambling to find a place to live once they were accepted. Many of the extra housing units that were added to accommodate the bulge of students in the double cohort are left empty.
[...]
While empty beds aren't great for landlords, Oestreich said the surplus is good for students.
"Students have more of a choice now," she said. "They don't have to live in a basement bedroom if they don't want to, or live in substandard housing."
http://old.uwstudent.org/article.php?story=20040824163145152