Here’s a photo for reference

" I moved into the apartment when it was a new build and the sinks have always been this way, "

Surely you jest.

I jest not but thanks for the help lol

Out of curiosity- do you own or rent? If renting, you need to contact your landlord. This is not normal. It isn’t unusual for new builds to have problems though. We had an inspection before we closed on our new home and it showed a few errors such as hot water going into the toilets and faucets hot/cold switched.

Rent, we told the landlord when we first moved in and they said it was supposed to be that way. 🧐 now it’s been a few years and I’m willing to just fix it ourselves

Oh, a few years! Yikes. Do you really love the place? Is the rent reasonable? You’ll need your landlord approval for any large changes. Is it worth it? Where do you live? Is this a one-off apartment or a building full of apartments like this? It’s hard to estimate costs really.

The symptom you described is typically the result of improper venting, no venting, or clogged venting. Clogged venting should be fixable by a plumber, but, if the venting is incorrectly done, that means tearing into the wall to correct it, and it could be quite complicated in a multi-family unit. Do any of your neighbors have this same problem?

Vessel sinks are notorious for poor draining, because there is no overflow built into the sink. The grid style drain that you have allows an air bubble to create an air lock between the grid and the trap. Confirm this by placing a straw down through the grid (keep the end above the water in the trap) to release the bubble while the sink tries to drain. Changing the grid type drain to a lift and turn pop-up type drain often provides some improvement. Changing the vessel sink to a standard sink with overflow is the best cure.