Converting plot sizes: What are feet, yards, marlas, and kanals all about? (2024)

Even more troublesome than converting English measurements into Urdu ones is the task of converting and knowing the sizes of plots in feet, yards, meters, marlas, and kanals. Substantial confusion is added by the varying usage of marlas and kanals in different cities, regions, and provinces of Pakistan.

If you are from Lahore, looking to buy property in some specific area of Islamabad, chances are high that you may be readily familiar with marlas but not so much with other terminologies for sizes. You ask a property agent for plot prices in E-11, for example, and he randomly throws 50*90 at you; it is understandable for you to feel baffled for a second. The realisation that he might be talking of feet comes later, and finally you will realise, he is talking of a 4500 square feet plot, which translates into 500 square yards, which further translate into 20 marlasor 1 kanal.

Or take the example of Quetta, where the most popular term to use is yards (or gazz as it is known in Urdu.) However, you will often find people alternating there between yards and feet. You will be told the plot size in yards, but when you ask prices, they will generally be stated per feet.

Similarly, the favoured unit of measurement in Karachi is feet and generally, the property sizes will be provided in per square foot. However, yards are popular there as well. To remove any confusion that you may have about plot size conversion, here we have all the conversions which you can use to conveniently convert one unit of measurement into another:

To put it in a different perspective: a marla is 225 square feet or 25 square yards. 5 marlas are equal to 1125 square feet and 125 square yards, while 10 marlas are 2250 square feet or 250 square yards.

The exact dimensions of these plots can differ significantly, depending on where the plot is located, and differs from one housing scheme/colony to another.

For example, in DHA Lahore a 10-marla plot generally has the dimensions of 35 x 65 feet, like the 10-marla plots in Bahria Town Lahore. Translated into size, this amounts to 2275 feet, which further translates into 252 square yards and is slightly more than the general 10-marla plots – which have a size of 2250 square feet and 250 square yards respectively. Below are the general dimensions of plots in DHA Lahore and Bahria Town Lahore.

The plot sizes can differ even further due to the plot’s location. For example, Naveed Real Estate & Builders CEO Naveed Gujjar explained that in some cases, particularly corner plots can differ in Bahria Town Lahore. The corner plots are generally 10-marla or 1-kanal plots and their dimensions can change from 30×65 to 30×70 or 50×90 to 50×95 and such.

While we have provided all the varying details about how to convert your plots into different sizes, if you are looking for a property on Zameen.com, you don’t have to worry about any of that. All these measurements are already provided at the same place where the prices and plot size are provided on property listings. All you need to do is take your cursor onto the plot size and you will find its value in feet, yards, metres, marlas, and kanals, as shown in the image below for 24 marla plot in Bahria Town:

Do you have any questions about this article or conversion of plot sizes? You can talk to us in the comments section. You can also head to the Zameen Forum for an extensive discussion.