Yes, for most houses in Lee. A handful of listed buildings are scattered through a large stock of ordinary homes. Historic England records no conservation areas here. The neighbours are applying for planning permission at a steady clip. The ground causes more trouble than the paperwork.
Historic England counts 73 listed buildings in Lee: 6 at Grade I, 16 at Grade II* and 51 at Grade II. Listing covers the whole building, inside and out, so almost any change to one, from windows to internal walls, needs listed building consent from the council on top of any planning permission. Grade I and Grade II* are the top tiers and get the closest scrutiny. In an area of this size, 73 buildings is a small share of the homes, so most buyers will be dealing with an ordinary house.
There is one scheduled monument in the area, the strictest tier of protection, and it matters mainly to anyone whose land adjoins it.
Lewisham's planning register shows 594 applications in Lee between April 2024 and June 2026, and 268 of them in the last twelve months. People here are extending, converting and rebuilding at a steady rate. The register records applications, though, not how many of them were approved, so that number shows demand and says nothing about how the council decides. When the Domesday Book recorded Lee, it was a small patch of farmland surrounded by woodland, and it has been asking to build a bit further out ever since.
The ground is the bigger constraint. The British Geological Survey places the whole of Lee in shrink-swell class 3, its published hazard class for ground that swells when wet and shrinks when dry. For an extension, that means foundations dug deeper than the textbook minimum, more care near trees, and a structural engineer's view before a builder quotes. None of that makes extending unwise. It makes it more expensive than the garden suggests, because the costly part is under the lawn.
Three listed buildings in the area are on Historic England's Heritage at Risk register. That means they are in poor condition and in need of repair, which can attract grant funding and certainly attracts attention from conservation officers. It is a matter for those buildings' owners and has no bearing on an ordinary house down the road.
For an unlisted house outside a conservation area, national permitted development rights allow some rear extensions and loft conversions without a full planning application, within set limits on size and height. Flats do not carry those rights, and in Lee flats make up a large part of the stock. A council can also remove permitted development rights on particular streets through a direction, so ask Lewisham Council's planning department whether the specific house is listed or covered by any direction, and check the planning history of the property next door at the same time. The neighbour's approved extension is the best guide to what yours will look like on paper.
Lee is middling on how freely you can alter a house. The rules allow most of what a family wants to build, and the clay underneath decides how much that will cost.