Acquisitions - Additional Information (Detail) $ in Millions	1 Months Ended	3 Months Ended
Jan. 31, 2017 USD ($) ShoppingCenter	Mar. 31, 2017 USD ($)
Business Acquisition [Line Items]
Revenues from the date of acquisition		$ 1.5
Shopping Center [Member]
Business Acquisition [Line Items]
Number of business acquired \| ShoppingCenter	1
Shopping Center [Member] \| Chicago, IL [Member]
Business Acquisition [Line Items]
Business acquisitions value	$ 81.0

Business acquisition cost of acquired entity purchase price gross.

No definition available.

Name:	ddr_BusinessAcquisitionCostOfAcquiredEntityPurchasePriceGross
Namespace Prefix:	ddr_
Data Type:	xbrli:monetaryItemType
Balance Type:	debit
Period Type:	duration

- Definition

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.

+ References

No definition available.

+ Details

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

- Definition

This element represents the amount of revenue of the acquiree since the acquisition date included in the consolidated income statement for the reporting period.

+ References

Reference 1: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 805
-SubTopic 10
-Section 50
-Paragraph 2
-Subparagraph (h)(1)
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=65885119&loc=d3e1392-128463

+ Details

Name:	us-gaap_BusinessCombinationProFormaInformationRevenueOfAcquireeSinceAcquisitionDateActual
Namespace Prefix:	us-gaap_
Data Type:	xbrli:monetaryItemType
Balance Type:	credit
Period Type:	duration

- Definition

The number of businesses acquired by the entity during the period.

+ References

No definition available.

+ Details

Name:	us-gaap_NumberOfBusinessesAcquired
Namespace Prefix:	us-gaap_
Data Type:	xbrli:integerItemType
Balance Type:	na
Period Type:	duration

- Details

Name:	us-gaap_StatementBusinessSegmentsAxis=ddr_ShoppingCenterMember
Namespace Prefix:
Data Type:	na
Balance Type:
Period Type:

- Details

Name:	us-gaap_RealEstateAndAccumulatedDepreciationDescriptionOfPropertyAxis=ddr_ChicagoILMember
Namespace Prefix:
Data Type:	na
Balance Type:
Period Type: