Yep.
You're also overthinking this in sense that town-planners are basically given a giant suitcase full of money and told SPEND THIS OR DIE! So why build shitty apartments when you can build nice ones? Nobody was going to afford middle-class ones anyway.
The problem is that nobody really cares if they sit empty or not (except people who would love to live in them). Once the money's spent the city could give a shit what happens and the developer's already two projects away. So there's no incentive to just drop prices and get them filled up. And if they devalue them now, wealthy speculators will shit their pants, the bed, and possibly the whole economy.
It might even work out for the government. If social unrest gets much worse, and housing is a big component beef (odds are yes) THEN they'll have an incentive to fire-sale the things to keep people quiet. Just think! The government can be all like FREE HOUSES FOR EVERYBODYYYYYYY!!!!!! As long as the buildings haven't crumbled too badly, they're like revolution insurance.