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Marla, Kanal and Bigha: What They Actually Measure
Property in Pakistan and much of northern India is advertised in Marla and Kanal, quoted in square feet, and registered in square metres. The three rarely appear on the same page, and the conversion between them is stated precisely almost nowhere.
7 min read · updated 30 August 2026 · links to 8 tools
In short
One Marla is 272.25 square feet, which is 25.2929 square metres or 30.25 square yards. One Kanal is exactly twenty Marla: 5,445 square feet, or 505.86 square metres. Eight Kanal is exactly one acre, because 8 × 5,445 is 43,560 square feet. Those figures are fixed and follow from the definition of the Marla as one 272.25th of an acre-derived grid. Bigha is different in kind: it is not one unit, and its value changes between Indian states and again in Nepal, so any single number offered for it is only true somewhere.
The Marla and the Kanal are exact
These two are well defined and the arithmetic is closed. One Marla is 272.25 square feet. One Kanal is twenty Marla. Everything else follows.
The reason the numbers look arbitrary is that they descend from the acre. An acre is 43,560 square feet; divide it into 160 parts and each is 272.25. That is the Marla. Eight Kanal, each of twenty Marla, is 160 Marla — one acre exactly, with nothing rounded anywhere in the chain.
The numbers, in the units people actually need
A 5 Marla plot — the commonest residential size advertised — is 1,361.25 square feet, which in square metres is 126.46. A 10 Marla plot is 2,722.5. A 1 Kanal house sits on 5,445 square feet, which is why it is the size people describe as "a proper house with a lawn".
| From | Square feet | Square metres | Square yards |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 Marla | 272.25 | 25.2929 | 30.25 |
| 5 Marla | 1,361.25 | 126.464 | 151.25 |
| 10 Marla | 2,722.5 | 252.929 | 302.5 |
| 1 Kanal (20 Marla) | 5,445 | 505.857 | 605 |
| 2 Kanal | 10,890 | 1,011.71 | 1,210 |
| 8 Kanal | 43,560 (1 acre) | 4,046.86 | 4,840 |
Where the exactness stops: the Marla was not always this size
The 272.25 figure is the standard used across Punjab, in both Pakistan and India, and it is what property listings mean today. It is not, however, universal across history or across every district.
Before standardisation the Marla varied locally, and some older records in parts of India use a Marla of around 25 square yards rather than 30.25. If you are reading a modern listing, use 272.25 without hesitation. If you are reading a document from an older revenue record, the figure deserves a second look before you rely on it.
This matters most for inherited or ancestral land, where the paperwork may predate standardisation. For anything bought or sold in the last few decades, 272.25 square feet is the number.
Bigha is not one unit, and treating it as one is the real error
Bigha is where most conversion tables quietly go wrong. They print a single number. There is no single number.
The Bigha varies substantially between Indian states — the value used in Uttar Pradesh is not the value used in Rajasthan, West Bengal or Bihar — and it varies again in Nepal, where a Bigha is a different size altogether and subdivides into Kattha and Dhur rather than into anything Punjabi. A table offering "1 Bigha = X" without naming a state is not converting; it is guessing on your behalf.
This is why the Bigha converter here names the convention it uses on the page rather than presenting one figure as universal, and why the open dataset behind these converters carries an explicit caveat on Bigha rather than a value.
Before using any Bigha figure for a transaction, establish which regional Bigha the document means. The difference between two regional definitions can be larger than the difference between a Bigha and an acre.
Why property listings and registry documents disagree
A listing says 10 Marla. The registry says 252.929 square metres. A bank valuation quotes 2,722.5 square feet. All three are the same plot, and the mismatch is purely which unit the document was drafted in.
The practical advice is to convert everything into one unit before comparing anything — square feet is usually easiest, because it is the unit most listings quote a price per. A price of PKR 12,000 per square foot on a 5 Marla plot is 1,361.25 × 12,000, and it is worth doing that arithmetic before comparing two plots quoted in different units, because the per-unit prices are not comparable until they are.
Frequently asked questions
How many square feet is 1 Marla?
272.25 square feet exactly, which is 25.2929 square metres or 30.25 square yards. The figure comes from dividing an acre into 160 parts.
How many Marla are in 1 Kanal?
Exactly twenty. One Kanal is 5,445 square feet, and eight Kanal is exactly one acre.
How many square feet is a 5 Marla plot?
1,361.25 square feet, or 126.46 square metres. A 10 Marla plot is 2,722.5 square feet.
How much is 1 Bigha?
That depends entirely on where the document was written. The Bigha differs between Indian states and differs again in Nepal, so there is no single correct figure. Establish the region first; any table giving one universal number for Bigha is wrong somewhere.
Is 1 Kanal the same everywhere?
The Kanal as twenty Marla at 272.25 square feet each is the standard across Punjab in both Pakistan and India, and it is what modern listings mean. Very old revenue records may use a different local Marla, which changes the Kanal with it.