The housing starts data from Canada released last week showed that housing starts slowed during the month of December.

This comes after housing starts posted a strong performance in the previous month. Despite the 13.8% decline on a month over month basis, housing starts data remained reportedly strong for the year.

Data from Canada’s Mortgage and Housing Corp. showed that housing starts declined 13.8% to a seasonally adjusted rate of 216,980 on an annualized basis.

This was down compared to a revised print of 251,675 units seen in the month of November.

Bob Dugan, the chief economists ffrom CMHC said that despite the variation across the country, the national trend in housing starts held steady at its highest levels since 2008.

According to the data, total urban housing starts increased 6.2% in 2017 compared to the year before.

This was largely on account of higher construction activity in condominium and apartment units.

For the year ahead, analysts have painted a gloomy picture noting that housing starts could start to fall.

This comes amid the anticipated higher interest rates and tougher mortgage financing rules.