Land Measurement in Pakistan: Kanal, Acre and Murabba

Pakistan’s land units stack up like this: 20 marla = 1 kanal, 8 kanal = 1 acre, and 25 acres = 1 murabba, using the revenue marla of 272.25 square feet. One acre is 43,560 square feet, and a murabba is 1,089,000 square feet. Housing societies use a smaller 225 square foot marla, which changes the kanal but not the acre.

The hierarchy at a glance

The acre and murabba are fixed, so they mean the same everywhere. The marla and kanal are where the two systems split, as explained in our post on marla to square feet. Farmland in Punjab and the revenue records (fard, jamabandi, intiqal) use the revenue column. Urban housing schemes use the society column.

Kanal

A kanal is 20 marla. In a housing society that’s 4,500 square feet, typically a 50 × 90 ft plot. On revenue land it is 5,445 square feet. The kanal to square feet converter uses the society kanal; remember to switch to the revenue figure for agricultural land.

Acre

The acre is 43,560 square feet everywhere. In revenue units it is exactly 8 kanal or 160 marla. Measured with the 225 square foot marla, an acre is 193.6 marla, or 9.68 kanal. That’s why someone converting a farm with a society-based calculator gets an odd number like 9.68 kanal instead of 8.

The acres to kanal converter lets you check any figure. An acre is also about 0.405 hectare, and one hectare is about 2.471 acres.

Murabba

A murabba (literally “square”) is a block of farmland, traditionally 25 acres. The system goes back to the canal colonies of Punjab, where land was surveyed into square blocks and allotted by the murabba. Each murabba is usually divided into 25 numbered killas or fields of about an acre each, which is why farmers often describe land by murabba and killa numbers.

One murabba = 25 acres = 200 revenue kanal = 4,000 revenue marla = 1,089,000 square feet. Half a murabba is 12.5 acres. Use the murabba to acres converter for odd fractions.

Square yards (gaz) in Karachi and Sindh

In Karachi, Hyderabad and much of Sindh, plots are sold in square yards, called gaz. One square yard is 9 square feet. A 120-yard house is 1,080 square feet; a 240-yard house is 2,160 square feet. Here’s how common Karachi sizes compare with the 225 square foot marla:

So a 500-yard bungla is exactly one society kanal (4,500 sq ft), and a 1,000-yard plot is two kanal. A 120-yard house is a little under 5 marla.

A worked example

Four siblings own 2.5 acres of farmland jointly and want to divide it equally. In revenue units that is 2.5 × 8 = 20 kanal, or 400 marla, so each share is 100 marla: 5 kanal each. In square feet each share is 27,225. If one sibling then sells their 5 kanal to a buyer who thinks in society units, the buyer should expect 6.05 society kanal, not 5. The land is the same; only the unit changed.

For farmland measured in hectares, 2.5 acres is about 1.01 hectare.

Tips when dealing with land

• Always note which marla a document uses. If in doubt, convert everything to square feet.
• Revenue entries are often written as kanal-marla, such as “3-12”, meaning 3 kanal 12 marla (72 marla in total).
• For a field shaped irregularly, area comes from survey measurements, not just length × width. A patwari or licensed surveyor can confirm.

All of these units, plus square meters and hectares, are on the unit converter.

Frequently asked questions