Land units across India: cent, ground, gunta, bigha explained

Indian brokers do not share one measuring tape. A Chennai layout is talked about in grounds. A Nagercoil plot is a number of cents. A Bengaluru site is often in guntas or sq ft. A deed in Uttar Pradesh may say bigha, and the next district’s bigha is a different size. If you put the wrong unit on a WhatsApp caption, the visit starts with an argument. This page is the conversion a broker can stand behind, and the places where you must not pretend there is one national number.

Units that have one figure

• Square foot and square yard. 1 sq yard = 9 sq ft. This does not change by state.
• Acre. 1 acre = 43,560 sq ft = 4,840 sq yards.
• Cent. 1 cent = 435.6 sq ft = 48.4 sq yards. One hundredth of an acre. This is the plot unit in Tamil Nadu and Kerala. 3 cent is 1,306.8 sq ft. 5 cent is 2,178 sq ft.
• Ground. In Tamil Nadu, especially Chennai, 1 ground = 2,400 sq ft, about 5.51 cent. People round it to 5.5. The sale deed may ignore the word and write sq ft. If “one ground” and the deed disagree, read the deed aloud and put sq ft on the listing.
• Gunta. Where a gunta is one fortieth of an acre, it is 1,089 sq ft or 121 sq yards. That is the usual figure in Karnataka, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, and Telangana. Forty guntas make an acre. A village that uses a different local gunta should be quoted from the document, not from this paragraph.

The converter uses exactly these figures. It runs on the phone. It does not ask you to log in. Tamil labels sit under the result: சென்ட், கிரவுண்ட், குண்டா, சதுர அடி.

Bigha is not one unit

Do not multiply a bigha by 43,560 and hope. In much of Assam and West Bengal a bigha is often 14,400 sq ft. In parts of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar a pucca bigha is often given as about 27,225 sq ft. Rajasthan, Gujarat, and parts of Madhya Pradesh use still other local bighas, sometimes tied to a different square yard. Two brokers from two states can both be “right” and still be 10,000 sq ft apart. Write the sq ft from the papers, and use the local word only as a nickname next to that number.

Hectare appears on some records: 1 hectare = 2.471 acres, about 107,639 sq ft. If the patta or the 7/12 says hectare, convert from that figure, not from the owner’s memory of “about two acres”.

Words that are not units

Ankanam is an older Tamil word. It is not safe to treat as 300 sq ft or any other single number on every deed. Veettu thidal means a house site, not a size. Patta is a Tamil Nadu revenue record, not a measurement. Those three are in the glossary so a caption does not confuse them with cent.

How to write the caption

5 cent (2,178 sq ft) east facing house site. Deed checked for the sq ft. Asking price only after the owner confirms.

Say the unit the buyer used, then the sq ft in brackets. That one habit prevents the Chennai buyer who thinks in grounds from arguing with the Kerala buyer who thinks in cents when they are somehow on the same thread.

Plot brokers can keep both numbers on the listing with Estavik for land. City notes for cent markets: Madurai and Nagercoil. For grounds in the city: Chennai.