Cash is becoming the latest solution to apartment noise disputes in South Korea, with a growing number of residents paying neighbours to keep the peace, according to online communities.
In a recent post on Bobaedream, a popular online community for car enthusiasts, one user said he had been suffering from severe noise caused by toddlers in the apartment above.
After he complained, the neighbours upstairs agreed to pay him two million won (RM5,500) a month in compensation until the children were old enough to stop running around indoors.
The user described the arrangement as a fair solution, writing, “To be honest, the noise has actually gotten worse since we agreed on the monthly payments, but it doesn’t bother me anymore.”
A similar case was reported two years ago, when residents of a high-rise apartment in Seoul’s Songpa-gu agreed that the upstairs household would pay 300,000 won a month to compensate for noise, according to news reports.
Under official noise rules for multiunit housing, interfloor noise is defined as noise exceeding 57 decibels during the daytime, from 6am to 10pm, or 52 decibels at night, from 10pm to 6am.
Disputes over interfloor noise have been on the rise in South Korea, where apartment living is the dominant form of urban housing.
According to the Interfloor Noise Neighbor Support Center operated by the Korea Environment, the number of on-site inspections conducted in response to complaints – including visits and noise measurements – surged from 897 in 2020 to 2,133 in 2025. — The Korea Herald/ANN
