In the UK, there are very tight laws for changing your house. But they're set nationally. I think they're ridiculous. It's very hard to get permission to build something in a residential area (with some tightly defined exceptions for 1 story extensions not visible from the front or sheds etc).
Weirdly you can do what you want outside of that. So I can't build a turret on my house. But I could paint it pink and replace my front lawn with cactuses or cover it in junk cars.
No one can make me do anything to make it look nice. But I'm stopped from doing much to make it bigger or look better than the neighbours.
There are "listed" buildings (where you cannot change almost anything). But they're rare and you know you're buying Shakespeares cottage and gave to keep it exactly as is. And in a lot of areas you need permission to cut down trees over a certain size.