If you walk around inner Sydney or Melbourne, it's hard to miss the record-breaking apartment construction boom transforming the skyline.

But get this: the frantic building activity, much of it driven by high-rise units, is predicted to soon start cooling off.

If these predictions are correct, that will be a significant change for the economy, after a boom in housing construction over the last five years, fuelled by cheap debt and rising house prices.

So, will the housing construction boom be followed by a bust, as is often the case in this industry? And what impact would a downturn be for the economy, and the housing market?