Yes, most people can, but plenty will need permission first. There are dozens of listed buildings. Two conservation areas cover parts of the area. Neighbours lodge around three hundred planning applications a year. The neighbours are extending, and what matters is whether your house has to ask first.
Historic England lists 43 buildings in the area: 2 at Grade I, 5 at Grade II* and 36 at Grade II. If yours is one of them, listed building consent covers the inside as well as the outside, so a replacement window, a knocked-through wall or a new staircase can all need it. Buyers who assume listing only covers the front of the house tend to find out otherwise when they reach the fireplace. Whether a house is listed is a matter of record, so check it before you commission an architect.
Two conservation areas fall within the area: Limpsfield itself and Station Road West, Oxted. Inside one, the council takes more interest in what a house looks like from the street. Some changes that would go through automatically elsewhere can need an application, and demolition and work to trees come under closer control. Being unlisted but inside a conservation area gives you more freedom than a listed house, but less than you'd have outside one.
What the neighbours are doing is the best evidence. There were 647 planning applications between April 2024 and June 2026, and 308 of them came in the twelve months to June 2026. That's a lot of paperwork for a village of 1,016 households, and it shows owners here keep extending, converting and altering their homes. The count covers applications, not approvals, so it shows how many people try, not how many succeed.
In practice, it depends on the house. An unlisted house outside the conservation areas starts with the usual permitted development rights, the national allowance for modest extensions without a full application, though that still has limits and conditions. Inside a conservation area, some of those rights shrink. A listed house needs consent for most changes. Before you buy a house for the extension it could have, ask the council whether it's listed, whether it's in a conservation area, and which permitted development rights still apply. A pre-application conversation costs far less than a refused scheme.
Your freedom to extend in Limpsfield is middling. Most houses can grow with the right paperwork, and the listed and conservation-area homes will need more patience and a planning officer who agrees.