Yes, for most houses, but the old ones come with a lot more paperwork. The village has no conservation area, which takes one layer of restriction away. It does have a thick scatter of listed buildings. The neighbours file planning applications constantly. If your house is a post-war semi you're mostly free, and if it's on the heritage list, the listing sets the terms.
Historic England lists 68 buildings in the area: one at Grade I, five at Grade II* and 62 at Grade II. Listing covers the whole building, inside and out, so altering one needs listed building consent on top of any planning permission. That applies to internal walls, windows and fireplaces as much as extensions. For the one Grade I and five Grade II* buildings, expect heritage specialists to go through every drawing. The 62 Grade II buildings get less scrutiny, but anything that changes their character still needs consent.
There is one scheduled monument in the area, the strictest tier of protection. It mainly matters if your land sits next to it, since works affecting a scheduled monument need separate consent.
Plenty of people here extend. Maidstone's planning records show 425 applications in the area between April 2024 and June 2026, with 193 in the last twelve months. That is hardly a village frozen in aspic. Most of those applications come from people who wanted a bigger kitchen and filed the forms.
For an unlisted house outside a conservation area, which describes most of Yalding's homes, permitted development rights can cover modest rear extensions and some loft work without a full planning application, within national size limits. For a listed building, permitted development does little for you: nearly any change to the fabric needs consent. Check the listing for the exact address before assuming the rules that apply next door apply to you.
Middling freedom, then. The post-war stock can extend within the usual limits, and the listed cottages have to go through the consent process first.