What is a kanal and how it relates to square feet
The kanal is a traditional unit of land area used across Pakistan and the northern Indian states of Punjab, Haryana, and Himachal Pradesh. Under the standard system, one kanal is 5,445 square feet, which is identical to 20 marla, 605 square yards, or about 505.86 square metres. It is one of the most common ways property is bought, sold, and registered in the region, so being able to move between square feet and kanal is essential when reading listings or land records.
The number 5,445 is not arbitrary — it comes from the marla, the smaller unit that makes up a kanal. The standard marla is 272.25 square feet, and 20 marla multiplied by 272.25 gives exactly 5,445 square feet. Because the relationship is fixed, converting square feet to kanal is just division: take the area in square feet and divide by 5,445.
How to convert square feet to kanal step by step
Suppose you have a rectangular plot that measures 90 feet by 60.5 feet. Multiply the two sides to get the area: 90 × 60.5 = 5,445 square feet, which divides by 5,445 to give exactly 1 kanal. A larger plot of 10,890 square feet divides to 2 kanal, and a 2,722.5 square-foot plot comes out to 0.5 kanal, or 10 marla. When the answer is not a whole number, the fractional part converts to marla by multiplying by 20 — so 1.25 kanal is 1 kanal and 5 marla.
This makes kanal easy to slot alongside other land units. One kanal is roughly one-eighth of an acre, so eight kanal fill about a full acre. If you already think in acres for farmland, dividing the acre figure by eight gives you a quick kanal estimate, while the square-foot route above gives the precise number.
Watch for regional variations
While 5,445 square feet per kanal is the standard across most of Pakistan and Indian Punjab, the marla was historically tied to local measuring rods, so a few districts still use a smaller marla of around 225 square feet. In those areas a kanal works out closer to 4,500 square feet. Some regions also express land as 8 kanal to the acre, which matches the one-eighth relationship. For casual comparison the standard 5,445 figure is reliable, but for legal transfers, mutations, or revenue records, always confirm the marla value used by the local land authority before converting.