Model workers cut down to size

Detailed work: A craftsman working on a miniature apartment block building at the Canyon Models factory in Shenzhen.

SHENZHEN: They tower over their shrunken creations like gods. But in the face of an extended downturn after a decade-long property boom, China’s miniature apartment builders are finally downsizing their ambitions.

China has experienced the most rapid urbanisation in human history – it is said to have used more cement in 2011-2013 than the US did in the entire 20th century, and built twice as many homes in the decade to 2010 as exist in Britain in total. Over the same period home prices in major cities tripled, and many residential buyers snapped up apartments before a stone was laid.