Organization (Details) - entity	9 Months Ended
Sep. 30, 2018	Dec. 31, 2017
Subsidiary of Limited Liability Company or Limited Partnership [Line Items]
Number of management companies (in entities)	7
Macerich \| The Macerich Partnership, L.P.
Subsidiary of Limited Liability Company or Limited Partnership [Line Items]
Ownership interest in operating partnership	93.00%	93.00%

Line items represent financial concepts included in a table. These concepts are used to disclose reportable information associated with domain members defined in one or many axes to the table.

No definition available.

Name:	us-gaap_SubsidiaryOfLimitedLiabilityCompanyOrLimitedPartnershipLineItems
Namespace Prefix:	us-gaap_
Data Type:	xbrli:stringItemType
Balance Type:	na
Period Type:	duration