It's always money. At a guess I'd say it's cheaper to create a company and buy/sell that (including the assets it owns such as property) then dissolve the company rather than just buying/selling the property. Scale that up to a big company that has to deal with lots of different laws and you're left with this nonsense.

It sounds like a tax dodge. New LLC in charge until just before the end of the tax year then it's wound down and the property moves to another