That could be dealt with by beefing up sound insulation in your party walls. Maybe building code needs to be changed to deal with this, but my guess is you just

That could be dealt with by beefing up sound insulation in your party walls. Maybe building code needs to be changed to deal with this, but my guess is you just lived in buildings where the architect/contractor got cheap. ETA: To be fair, the architect/contractor/developer going for the cheap option is pretty common. Especially when it comes to something no one can see like insulation inside walls.