New home construction fell in December from historically elevated levels but remains robust.

Home starts declined to 228,300 units last month on an annualized basis, down 12.6 per cent from a revised 261,200 units in November, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. said Monday in Ottawa. The overall number missed the 230,000 median forecast in a Bloomberg survey.

The new construction is a sign the country’s housing market is slowing somewhat but continues to benefit from historically low interest rates and robust demand.

“Homebuilding still looks set to remain more resilient than the overall economy in early 2021,” Katherine Judge, an economist at Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, said in a report to investors.

New construction of multi-family homes, which include condos and apartments, dropped 15 per cent, CMHC reported, while single-family starts declined six per cent. Overall housing starts fell in every province except Alberta and New Brunswick.