I spent seven years living in an apartment. I so enjoyed hearing the neighbors having sex, the thumping music they played, the smell of their cigarette smoke inside my apartment with all my windows closed, the random intrusions by management to repair something unrelated to my apartment, the random rent increases. Add this to the fact that I had no space for a work shop to make anything, and paying the equivalent of a mortgage with no equivalent home equity.
Some people love apartment life, but it definitely was not for me.
I truly am sorry to hear that. But the unfortunately all to common practice of shitty land lords building shitty buildings for quick money should (hopefully) not be what we are aiming for in the future. Landlords were able to get away with far too much for far too long because everyone wasn't connected and able to video everything. Hopefully, again, it changes now
I don't have any of the problems mentioned by the first commenter and I live in a relatively cheap apartment. I don't even hear the people in the other room in my own apartment if I have doors and windows closed. That's better than some houses I've been to and lived in.
How old is your building? Is it "stick-built" (wood frame construction) or something else? Are the walls plaster or drywall? Older construction tends to have quieter walls (but louder floors, in my experience).
the problem seems to be when people take "apartment life isn't for me" and then go to the conclusion of "they shouldn't build apartments for anybody"
you don't have to live in one. just let people build them. only allowing single family homes doesn't make single family homes more accessible for anybody, it just makes land more scarce and housing less affordable all around.
best thing to ever happen when I was a horny preteen. Neighbors moved in and boned EVERY night and that girl was LOUD as fuck. And holy shit was she cumming apparently lol
My mom was soooo mad. And she couldn't do anything about it cause the neighbors refused to acknowledge her!
Some of the points are unrelated like yeah you got higher rent but that is if you rent, nothing to do with being apartment or not. The same with the mortgage comment, you can buy apartments you know.
Then clearly those apartments were shit, on mine I usually don't hear anything of the other neighbors except if I am next to the wall connecting to them and they really make super noise or in the bathroom due the vents.
And the smoke thing yeah... That also points to shitty insulation and air can get in.
The workshops thing yeah I get it. Technically you could setup something, of course small, if you have a spare room but based on the noise things you said probably not a good idea you might have gotten noise complaints.