As in, how do houses and corporate buildings become abandoned? Were certain buildings never listed for sale? Or were they, but just never sold? How does something as big as an entire mall become abandoned?
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For lots of complicated, sometimes financial and almost certainly political reasons.
It depends on where you are but most localities are controlled by municipal or some kind of planning authority.
Malls, in particular, are pretty costly to operate and (in the US) take up a fairly large plot of land (mostly parking!). So if that mall cannot attract enough consumers and the stores within start to close, then it accelerates the closure. Fewer stores attract even fewer customers until no one finds it profitable – a death spiral.
A lot of time the land is owned and priced according to “market value”. Sometimes this market value is really not in line with actual “use value” and no buyers are willing to pay the price where the seller is willing to sell it at. Although the stalemate may eventually break – this process can last decades.
Add that to the fact that the planning/zoning authorities can take years to permit alternative use AND local residents/politicians will seldom face facts, it leads to years of bickering. A development company may be willing to build apartments or high density residences – usually fought by nearby residents for traffic/property price impact (and other dubious reasons). One might be willing to build luxury style apartments – usually fought by people who want affordable housing. Another might be willing to build factories – but the zoning would have to change from commercial to industrial and then go through years of litigation and environmental permitting.
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