I read-up on this years ago because i had the same concerns !
There is a lot of misconception on this subject but the answer is - not unless the wall is 'already' compromised, one in good full repair will be fine.

I've grown them on various walls and have found this to be true every time.

Next doors had an ivy which grew over into ours. It climbed up the wall and around the central heating flue. One day, the heating wouldn't work and when my husband went outside to check the flue, it was overgrown with ivy. When he pulled all the ivy away, the heating was working again. The moral of the story being - watch where it spreads to. Apparently it is a common thing for them to block flues, preventing heating systems working.

Yes, clearly a responsible gardener would watch ANY clinger.

I hate the debri it leaves on the wall for years when someone has removed it.

I removed it here when i moved in (because i wanted to grow something else there) and it took about 2 years for the scratchy marks to disappear !

Yes Denise, where it was pulled off the wall (about 4 years ago) there are still marks on the bricks where it has been. We've scraped bits off but it's difficult to get all of it off (ruins your nails doing it!).

I just sprayed it with weedkiller and it went without the scraping you had to endure :-)

I used to work for a firm of architects - they said ivy DOES damage brickwork and mortar, and would never plant it even on a new build with perfect brickwork. They would, though, plant Parthenocissus (virginia creeper) IF the mortar was in perfect condition, but not if it was crumbling. I don't really have an opinion on this, because I'd never plant either of these plants on house walls; in the case of virginia creeper, not at all, though ivy I've used up fences.

I tend to agree Bamboo as new brick work is not always perfect anyway. I must confess I am not a fan of Ivy

If in doubt , try something else if you are thinking of planting something new. So many find ivy a real nuisance in the end.

And virginia creeper is even worse - I don't plant that because it inevitably takes over and is a pain to maintain, ivy's slightly easier, but still needs a fair bit of maintenance.

And it can worm its way in past window/door frames too!