Not easily, and first you have to find a house. Hundreds of buildings here are listed. Conservation areas cover the district and its edges. Almost every home is a flat. In Soho, most things you might want to change in a home need someone else's permission first.
There are 669 listed buildings in and around Soho: 26 at Grade I, 73 at Grade II* and 570 at Grade II. Listing protects the whole building, inside and out, so changing a staircase, a fireplace or a window in a listed home needs listed building consent from Westminster, and so does work that would be routine anywhere else. Soho was largely developed by a bricklayer, Richard Frith, who took on the lease in the later 17th century. More than three centuries on, you still need permission to touch his bricks.
Eighteen conservation areas fall in or around the district, Soho, Chinatown and Denmark Street among them. In a conservation area the council controls demolition, and changes to the look of a street, such as roof additions and new frontages, face closer scrutiny. Planning here is decided against how the street looks as a whole, not just against what each owner wants.
The neighbours are still trying. Westminster logged 899 planning applications across Soho between April 2024 and June 2026, and 431 of them in the last twelve months. That counts what went in, not what was allowed. Most of it will be shopfronts, offices and restaurants, because the district's buildings are mostly offices and shops, and every one of those applications was read by the same planning officers who will read yours.
The ground adds its own condition. The British Geological Survey puts Soho in shrink-swell class 3 for clay, and that class covers all of the area. The clay underneath swells when wet and shrinks when dry, so any new foundations, basement digs or rear extensions need a structural engineer to set the depth, and the bill should allow for it. The Georgian builders worked on this clay too, and some of their buildings are still standing.
Two listed buildings in and around Soho are on Historic England's Heritage at Risk register. Being on the register means the building is in poor condition: repairs may qualify for grant funding and will get close attention from Historic England and the council. For anyone buying an ordinary flat nearby, these buildings are a neighbour, not a problem.
The practical answer depends on what you own. About 94% of Soho's homes are flats and only about 2% are terraced houses, and the automatic rights that let a householder build a modest extension without applying apply only to houses, never to flats. A flat owner needs planning permission for most external changes, plus listed building consent where the building is listed, plus the freeholder's agreement under the lease. Ask the seller for the consents behind any past alterations, because unauthorised works to a listed building become the new owner's problem the day the sale completes.
For anyone who likes to renovate, Soho is about as restrictive as London gets: almost everything needs a consent, and the building's history takes priority over your plans. Buy here for the building as it stands, not for what you hope to turn it into.