Municipal officials say multinational companies with operations in Venezuela, which routinely take write-offs on earnings statements due to depreciation of their bolivar holdings, are key investors in premium office space.
The officials declined to identify specific companies, but said they range from a well-known financial services company to popular consumer products groups.
Foreign companies contacted by Reuters about real estate investments in Venezuela declined to comment.
Many of the projects were drawn up in 2010, when the government toughened exchange controls by outlawing a widely-used parallel currency market, leaving bolivars trapped in local bank accounts.
The luxury real estate development contrasts with the tough day-to-day realities of Venezuelans who spend hours in lines seeking staple goods ranging from rice to medicine.
"This is routine, it's like this every day," said Carlos Martinez, 40, a bank employee standing in a line stretching through the flashy La Castellana neighborhood, a few blocks from where a new mall with office space and luxury apartments is set to open.
"This is a wealthy area with all these luxury buildings and look at the line I'm stuck in."
The overall construction industry, like the rest of the economy, is in crisis. Building middle-income homes is rarely feasible because so little financing is available for construction or for purchase, and middle-class spending power has been battered by inflation.
Production of cement and steel have plummeted since late socialist leader Hugo Chavez put those industries under state control, meaning developers now have to buy such materials on the black market at increasingly high prices.
Real estate experts say that the high-end construction frenzy may have peaked last year as rising prices mean that new square footage is no longer necessarily a bargain.