July’s figures were driven by a big decline in the annual pace of urban starts, which fell by 11% to 234,857 units, while multi-unit urban starts were down by 12% and single-detached urban starts posted a 4% decline. The annual rate of rural starts, meanwhile, came in at 20,109 units for the month.

Vancouver and Toronto accounted for the most noteworthy slowdowns in the annual pace of overall starts (23% and 29% respectively), wiping out gains in Calgary (33%), Montreal (12%0, and Edmonton (6%).

The pace of housing starts had posted its largest monthly increase for a decade in June after an unpredictable start to the year.