Marla, kanal, square feet and gaz: Pakistan's property sizes, explained

Ask what size a house is anywhere in Punjab and you will hear marla or kanal. Ask in Karachi and you will hear square yards, usually as gaz. The words are simple; the trap is that a marla is not one size.

The two marlas

Under the British revenue system a marla was 272.25 square feet — one-twentieth of a kanal of 5,445 sq ft, which was itself one-eighth of an acre. That "big marla" is still what the revenue record uses in old urban areas, on rural fards, and across much of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

When the planned schemes came — DHA, Bahria Town, LDA Avenue, Johar Town, and nearly every approved society since — they rounded the marla to 25 square yards = 225 square feet, because it divides neatly. That is the marla on every DHA and Bahria plot, and the one you will see on Kothi.

Unit	Planned schemes (DHA, Bahria, LDA…)	Old city / revenue record
1 marla	225 sq ft · 25 sq yd	272.25 sq ft · 30.25 sq yd
5 marla	1,125 sq ft	1,361 sq ft
10 marla	2,250 sq ft	2,722 sq ft
1 kanal (20 marla)	4,500 sq ft · 500 sq yd	5,445 sq ft · 605 sq yd
2 kanal	9,000 sq ft	10,890 sq ft

The difference on a 10 marla plot is 472 sq ft — the size of a decent bedroom. When a listing says "10 marla" inside a scheme it means 2,250 sq ft; on a fard in the old city it means 2,722. Before you compare two prices per marla, make sure they are the same marla.

Karachi: square yards and gaz

Sindh's schemes — DHA Karachi, Bahria Town Karachi, KDA, Scheme 33 — measure in square yards, spoken as gaz. There are 9 square feet in a square yard, so:

Karachi size	Square feet	Punjab equivalent (225 sq ft marla)
80 sq yd	720	about 3.2 marla
120 sq yd	1,080	about 4.8 marla
200 sq yd	1,800	8 marla
240 sq yd	2,160	9.6 marla
400 sq yd	3,600	16 marla
500 sq yd	4,500	1 kanal
1,000 sq yd	9,000	2 kanal

A "500 gaz" house in DHA Karachi and a "1 kanal" house in DHA Lahore are the same size.

Square metres, for the paperwork

Some societies and most foreign buyers think in square metres. One square metre is 10.764 sq ft, so a 225 sq ft marla is about 20.9 m², a 1 kanal plot is about 418 m², and a 500 sq yd plot is the same 418 m².

What the words on a listing actually mean

• Marla and kanal are plot sizes — the land. The covered area of the house is separate and usually larger than the plot, because of floors. "10 marla, 5 bed" tells you the land; ask for the covered area separately.
• Corner, park-facing, main boulevard are premiums on the same size. A corner plot is often 5–10% dearer than the one next to it.
• Possession and non-possession change the price more than size does inside a new phase; see our document guide.

How Kothi stores sizes

Every listing on Kothi is stored in square feet and shown in the unit you choose — marla, kanal, square yards, square feet or square metres — using the 225 sq ft marla and the 4,500 sq ft kanal, the scheme standard. If the agency's document uses the big marla, the square-feet figure on the listing is the one to trust, and the converter will show you both.

Questions people ask

Q: How many square feet are in a marla?

225 square feet in DHA, Bahria Town, LDA and other planned schemes (25 square yards). 272.25 square feet under the older revenue standard still used in old urban areas and on rural land records.

Q: How many marlas are in a kanal?

Twenty. A kanal is 4,500 square feet in planned schemes and 5,445 square feet under the revenue standard.

Q: What is a gaz?

A square yard — 9 square feet. Karachi and the rest of Sindh measure plots in square yards; 500 gaz equals one kanal in the scheme standard.

Q: Why are two "10 marla" houses different sizes?

Because one uses the scheme marla (225 sq ft, so 2,250 sq ft) and the other the revenue marla (272.25 sq ft, so 2,722 sq ft). Always compare square feet.

Sources: Zameen and MedaGhar unit guides; society plot standards for DHA Lahore and DHA Karachi. As of September 2026.