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Why do banks finance shared construction as mortgages instead of financing it directly and selling the apartments in a building?
Banks should be risk averse by default. They make loans to people and businesses after measuring their ability to repay.  After they approve a big project loan like an apartment building, they don't give all the money to the builders upfront. They give money as progress is made and they make sure the funds are not being used inappropriately. There's no reason they couldn't do all this while owning the project, but that would also open them to lawsuits later on if anything wasn't built to code. By keeping the project at arm's length, they avoid future liability.