The units that are fixed everywhere
A few conversions are arithmetic and never vary. One acre is 43,560 square feet. One hectare is 10,000 square metres, which is 107,639 square feet. One square yard — a gaj — is nine square feet. One square metre is 10.7639 square feet.
Where land is sold in acres, hectares, square yards or square metres, the figure means the same thing anywhere in India and can be converted without asking a local question.
Kanal and marla
Kanal and marla are used across Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and the plotted colonies of Chandigarh and its periphery. In this system one kanal is twenty marla, one marla is 272.25 square feet, and one kanal is therefore 5,445 square feet — one-eighth of an acre.
These figures are stable across the northern states that use them, which is why plot sizes in Panchkula, Mohali and Chandigarh are quoted in kanal and marla and can be compared directly.
Bigha and biswa: the unit that moves
Bigha has no single national value. It differs by state and, in some states, by district and by revenue tradition. A bigha in western Uttar Pradesh is not the same as a bigha in Rajasthan, in Bihar, in West Bengal, in Assam or in the hills of Himachal Pradesh, and each of those differs again from the others.
Biswa is a subdivision of a bigha — commonly twenty biswa to a bigha — so it inherits the same variation. A pucca and a kaccha bigha can also coexist in the same state, differing by a fixed multiple.
The practical rule is simple: never convert a bigha figure using a number you found on the internet. Ask the seller for the area in square feet or square yards as recorded in the revenue record, and treat the bigha figure as a label rather than a measurement.
Guntha, cent and ground
Guntha is used in Maharashtra, Karnataka and parts of Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh: one guntha is 1,089 square feet, and forty guntha make an acre.
Cent is used across Tamil Nadu, Kerala and parts of Karnataka: one cent is 435.6 square feet, and a hundred cents make an acre.
Ground is a Chennai unit: one ground is 2,400 square feet. Ankanam, used in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, is commonly 72 square feet, though local usage should be confirmed.
How to price land without being caught out
Convert every shortlisted plot to square feet before comparing anything. A rate per bigha is meaningless across a district boundary; a rate per square foot is not.
Take the area from the revenue record — the 7/12 extract, the jamabandi, the khatauni or the equivalent in your state — rather than from the advertisement. The record is what a registrar and a lender will use.
Where the plot is irregular, ask for the dimensions and the road frontage as well as the total. Two plots of the same area can differ substantially in value when one is narrow and deep.
Common questions
How many square feet is one bigha?
It depends on the state and sometimes the district, so there is no single answer. Ask for the area in square feet or square yards as it appears in the revenue record instead of converting a bigha figure.
How many square feet is one marla?
272.25 square feet in the kanal-marla system used in Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Chandigarh. Twenty marla make one kanal, or 5,445 square feet.
Is a gaj the same as a square yard?
Yes. One gaj is one square yard, which is exactly nine square feet.
Sources
- Fixed conversions: 1 acre = 43,560 sq ft, 1 hectare = 10,000 sq m, 1 sq yd = 9 sq ft, 1 sq m = 10.7639 sq ft
- Your state's revenue department land records and the measurement recorded in the 7/12 extract, jamabandi or khatauni
Last checked 2026-09-23.